SC4Tool - Reference and Visual Editor for BATs and Lots

[Andreas Roth 614]

There is no reader in SC4Tool, do you mean the Analyser/Importer tool? Maybe simrolle has a clue what went wrong when looking at the error report.

[dhoppeii 12]

Hey guys, been using the tool now since it's release.  I still amazed at the ease of use for not only the textures but for TE'ing.  I have discovered though, while helping aldara6166 with his texture issue, that much like earlier where I couldn't get the program to create an overlay texture, it now seems to create all textures as overlays.  Within the program it will show it either as a base or overlay but when you get into the LE, the textures only show up in the overlay tab.  Perhaps I am not doing somthing correctly, but I thought I would drop you a note nonetheless.  I really hadn't noticed it until now, since I have not used it to create any base textures.  Keep up the great work and thank you for what I feel is one of the best tools yet for the SC4 community.

[simrolle 18]

There is a bug in the tool in the current version while creating base textures. It is not really a bug; i didn't

understand it right how SC4 handles alpha-blended bitmaps. This is fixed in the newest version.

 

The analyser-bug is fixed as well.

 

Sorry for that,

simrolle

 

 

[aldara6166 109]

simrolle,

 

Glad to see the problem has been corrected.  At least I know now it was not something I did or did not do.

 

Can't wait for the next release!

[SUICO 129]

Here it is the portuguese translation file. Thanks again for this great tool!

[SUICO 129]

I attached the new translation on this message. Thanks again!

[Andreas Roth 614]

Thanks for the new translations! Once I have a chance to complete the documentation, the new version of SC4Tool is going to be released. Stay tuned!

[maetoch 0]

i got this error message when starting up Sc4 Tool:

 

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\mscorwks.dll could not be loaded

 

 

what did i do wrong?

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out.

[Andreas Roth 614]

SC4Tool v2.0.0 is ready

Some great news for celebrating my 1000th posting...  After countless beta versions, SC4Tool v2.0.0 is finally released. We included several new features and made many improvements to the existing tools as following:

 

Exemplar Editor

The Exemplar Editor allows you to edit values in building and lot exemplar files, similar to the Comparer. But with this tool, all properties are displayed in an easy-to-use tree view, and there's also a small information line where every property and the range of possible values are displayed.

Comparer

The Comparer was designed to compare several BATs and lots directly with each other, in order to detect values that exceed the usual range (future versions of SC4Tool will have referene values in the yellow line in the upper part of the window). With this tool, it's easy to spot buildings that are producing too much garbage or other values that are off. You can also edit the values and save the lots individually or together afterwards.

 

Dependencies Scanner

The dependencies scanner is used by the Analyser as well to detect prop and texture packs. You can also use it as a standalone tool for detecting the dependencies of all files that are installed, or to check specific files or folders. Missing IDs can be written in a report, so you might be able to find the matching dependencies (i. e. with the help of the BSC Texture Index).

SimCity Building Database

 

Since a lot of people had problems with the Microsoft Access Database, we migrated it to XML. If you have a previous version of SC4Tool installed, the existing database will be converted automatically during the first start of SC4Tool. Please make sure to use the update version of the installer (see below).

 

Texture Creator

 

Apart from several bugfixes, we implemented a link to the BSC Texture Index. If you have a personal ID range, please refer to the BSC for further information.

 

Properties Editor

 

This tool has been revamped as well, so you can easily look for certain properties, as well as adding new ones, such as custom occupant groups.

 

Download and Installation

 

There are two downloads, one full installer for first-time users, and an update version for those who already used SC4Tool v1.0.1. If an older version is already installed, please use the updater, since otherwise your database will not be imported. All downloads can be found on the official SC4Tool website , as well as further information on SC4Tool (Note: Dutch and Spanish pages are not updated yet).

 

Translations

 

Currently, SC4Tool is provided with the following language files: English, Dutch, German, Finnish (not complete), Portuguese and Spanish. The included readme and tutorial files are available in English and German, more languages will follow soon. If you want to translate SC4Tool to your language, use the built-in Language Editor and send the language file to us, so we can include it in later versions of SC4Tool.

[NicolaiS 8]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

 

May I express my deepest thanks for the release of the 2nd version of a terrific tool.

 

I can not wait to install it and start playing with it.

 

Thanks you Andreas ... thank you Simrolle ... and everybody else who has participated in this great tool.

[vester_DK 477]

Congratulation with your post no. 1000th and the release of SC4Tool v2.0.0.

Today I posted my post number 800.

[aldara6166 109]

Congrats on the 1000th post... I can't believe this is finally here...I never could get the hang of Datgen or the ILive reader. Now, maybe I can mod stuff all in this tool!!

 

Great work... keep em coming...

[Superchan 23]

i want a dependency browser that will browse our cities for modds, and lots they needed added, so that i can add my cities, and some plugins from my old computer, and so other people can see what plugins are not necessary, this would show the required ones that are not in the plugins, the ones that are, the complete list of required ones, and the unused plugins.

[simrolle 18]

Date: 11/18/2005 7:52:21 PM Author: aldara6166

Congrats on the 1000th post...

quote>

 

For i = 43 to 1001

   simrolle_is_posting()

Next i

 

That's the only way for me to reach this number...

Seriously: Congratulations, Andreas!

[flipke 0]

Hey!

I think i'm really going to like the SC4Tool, but where can i find the second edition? I found the first.

 

Thx

flip

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

Wow I must say. Better than DatGen and more user friendly. I checked it out some last night. The new version of DATGEn is like so over my head I stayed with the reader. I must say that even that is still a little hard to understand....

 

I will be checking this new version out I may even install the security pack 2 just to get the MDAC stuff to work....

 

Thanks alot...

 

Lynks

 

[Andreas Roth 614]

@flipke: Download SC4Tool form the official site: http://www.simszone.de/simcity4/downloads/sc4tool_en.php

@pmiller: You don't need the MDAC anymore - we migrated the database to XML, so problems related to this should't occur anymore. I suggest to uninstall v1.0.1 first and then install the full version of SC4Tool v2.0.0 (not the update).

[bixel 1,224]

Great job guys, you are really keeping this game alive.

[Karybdis 34]

Date: 11/25/2005 6:49:40 AM Author: pmiller19574 Wow I must say. Better than DatGen and more user friendly. I checked it out some last night. The new version of DATGEn is like so over my head...

quote>

That would be because the new Datgen was written for Sims2, which uses a lot more complicated stuff. But yea, to be compatible with both, it had to become a lot more complex unfortunately. There's not actually a single solitary Simcity4 plugin out of beta programming in the new datgen at all ^^;;; (alpha exemplar browser, Alpha path and rule viewer - meaning neither even has saving code that I know of). If I can pull off my current project, maybe it will be the first (and possibly last since core development was suspended)

 

I find this program to be extremely useful personally. I think its a great addition to the program lineup and to be honest, I hope it can work as a successor to Reader. That would be awesome in itself and its great that programmers finally took up with the game again. I'm going to be trying to help simrolle with stuff when I can, but he'll have to show back up and respond to my pm first. 

[Frolius666 0]

Hello there,

 

All this modding stuff is really great, it adds a whole new dimension to the game.

I just started to use the SC4 tool.

Had an error though, when reading from the database in the Analyser/Importer.

I probably did something wrong, so basically this is a cry for help, but if it is a bug I would gladly offer my assistance to help test it (don't know much about modding yet, but I'm learning &nbsp

 

Here's what I did.

The first time I opened the analyser it started to scan my plugins folder.

I opened a lot ( it was GDV's water taxi station) and saved it in the database.

Closed the analyzer and opened it again.

When I try to open the lot again from the database I get a message Error reading dataset!.

OK here opens a message Delete?.

Yes here opens a message Internal Error!

Nothing further happens, and I am still able to open the lot from the plugins folder.

 

Anybody any ideas??

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

Date: 11/25/2005 8:26:47 AM Author: Andreas Roth

@flipke: Download SC4Tool form the official site: http://www.simszone.de/simcity4/downloads/sc4tool_en.php

@pmiller: You don't need the MDAC anymore - we migrated the database to XML, so problems related to this should't occur anymore. I suggest to uninstall v1.0.1 first and then install the full version of SC4Tool v2.0.0 (not the update).

quote>

I did uninstall it...and reinstalled the new version and it still comes up with that error.. I have time today to play with it so I will be looking into it more. The MDAC Error comes up when loading the tool. So I am not sure if its still looking at something else or not. It looks cool so far....

 

Lynks

 

 

[simrolle 18]

Date: 11/26/2005 3:38:37 AM Author: Karybdis

I'm going to be trying to help simrolle with stuff when I can, but he'll have to show back up and respond to my pm first.

quote>

 

Sorry for the delay. Answer is on the way!

 

 

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

ok I uninstalled it again and reinstalled it and now it works fine. thanks so much for converting it to a more readable file system....

 

Works great just got done reworking my seaport to a more reasonable figures... My garbage was set to high and so using your tool I have reset it to a better amount with alot of other changes. I was even able to BTE enhance it also.. Thanks so very much... This is definitatly better than other programs...

 

I no longer get that error.

 

Thanks for all your hard work and efforts to make us a tool that even a still novis can use now...

 

Lynks

 

[pookakitten 0]

For starters, I love SC4Tool and I've only been using it for about 3 days. It has made figuring out missing dependancies so much much easier.

Feature suggestion:

Would it be possible in the future for the dependancy scanner, on request, show only the lots that are missing dependancies? Currently, the report feature only shows what files the dependancy scanner could not find.

[simrolle 18]

If you enlarge the TreeView on the left side of the DepScanner, all Lots with missing dependencies are marked with a red ball. But it's a good idea to generate a further list with all these lots. Will be realised in the next update.

 

THX

simrolle

 

[lakeyboy 12]

The SC4 Tool is fantastic and I use it for all my transit enabling and texture adding. I've loaded an elevated rail station which uses diagonal transit enabling into the SC4 tool to see how it's done and this is the pic I got:
https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//SC4%20Tool.jpg align=baseline>
Does the arrows as shown here make the transit enabled lot a diagonal or curve after curve and is it with only some types of neworks such as roads & streets and not for rail?

And also, some requests:

- If you can't already, diagonal transit enabling
- A feature to transit enable the ANT (two kinds maybe. One for the regular ant and one for the rural highway ANT which the paths are one way if it's required
- The ability to enter your own custom texture range into the options menu (the offical simtrop one which I got of Swamper 77) and that being used for all the textures you create in the program
- The ability to edit lot properties as well as the BAT properties which is on the lot and uploading a custom picture of the lot and having it made automatically into a icon by using a overlay of the borders of the icons in SC4. As well as titles and descriptions and etc.
- The ability to edit and make your own user interface (UI) by using a simple create pics in exterior program and paste them into SC4 tool and move them around and add custom values of anything that is happening in your city and etc.

Some might be possible and some might not but these are the requests and ideas I have.

Thanks for making such a useful program for SC4.

[simrolle 18]

Hi,

a lot of stuff, let me try to answer to all:

 

I've loaded an elevated rail station which uses diagonal transit enabling into the SC4 tool to see how it's done and this is the pic I got:  Does the arrows as shown here make the transit enabled lot a diagonal or curve after curve and is it with only some types of neworks such as roads & streets and not for rail? And also, some requests: - If you can't already, diagonal transit enabling -

quote>

 

The way a transit-type  uses (going diagonal or straight or curved) depends on the paths defined in the pathfile.

The TE only describes from-to of a tile; e.g. enters tile from west and leave it on the north. And -you can only

TE a tile for one kind of traffic. (This is for SC4Tool; i don't know what happens if you TE one tile with further kinds

of traffic.)

 

Frimi2 from the SFBT is working on a tool which allows you to create pathfiles very easy, but it isn't ready

yet.  

 

A feature to transit enable the ANT (two kinds maybe. One for the regular ant and one for the rural highway ANT which the paths are one way if it's required

quote>

 

What do you mean by this ?

 

The ability to enter your own custom texture range into the options menu (the offical simtrop one which I got of Swamper 77) and that being used for all the textures you create in the program

quote>

 

This is already realised. If you get your personal range of IID's from the BSC-Texture-Index, you will get

a PM how to enable this feature in the tool. Please understand that i will not explain it to the common because we want to make sure that everybody uses IID's out of the BSC-Pool to avoid double settings.

 

The ability to edit lot properties as well as the BAT properties which is on the lot and uploading a custom picture of the lot and having it made automatically into a icon by using a overlay of the borders of the icons in SC4. As well as titles and descriptions and etc.

quote>

 

Sorry, can you explain this again? I don't really understand what you mean by this. 

 

The ability to edit and make your own user interface (UI) by using a simple 'create pics in exterior program and paste them into SC4 tool and move them around and add custom values of anything that is happening in your city and etc.

quote>

Good idea  but not easy to do. I'll give it a try.

 

THX

simrolle

[lakeyboy 12]

Well, what I mean by the transit enabling of the ANT (Additonal Network Tool) which comes with the NAM to be added to the other networks you can transit enable in the program but I'm wondering if there needs to be two of the ANT transit enabling buttons in the program. One for the regular ANT and one for the Rural Highway Mod which uses the ANT and the paths are one way instead of two way when using the Rural Highway Mod correctly.

 The ability to edit lot properties as well as the BAT properties which is on the lot and uploading a custom picture of the lot and having it made automatically into a icon by using a overlay of the borders of the icons in SC4. As well as titles and descriptions and etc.

^^ By this, I mean you can edit the lot and the bat which is currently on the lot's properties all at once. Sort of like what you can do at the moment with Ilive's LE Prop program, but more advanced. And the custom icon feature is where you can take a custom in game pic of your SC4 creation, make it into a picture file which is the right size for a lot icon in the game and then insert that into the program and it will add on the borders which are around all icons and automatically create the 4 sections of the icon which is in the normal PNG file (one black and white and the rest colour and etc).

And with the custom ID implemtation into the program, do u PM me about how to do it because I would really love the program to use my range of textures i've already had reserved for me.

Thanks and I hope I have explained things clearer.

[Andreas Roth 614]

@lakeyboy: Diagonal transit enabling is entirely possible with SC4Tool; as simrolle said, the arrows merely indicate the directions where the traffic can go. You can also create curves and such, but for everything except straight sections you'll need custom path files. frimi2 is working on a path file editor, but as simrolle said, it's not ready yet. you can add the ID of the path file to a tile when right-clicking on it and opening the edit dialogue (in expert mode). A TE icon for the ANT may be quite useful for those who are working on an ANT conversion, but I think only one is necessary, since the double-oneway function is implemented with custom path files.

 

A comprehensive UI editor is missing indeed, ilive once started with a beta program, but it has still some flaws and does only the basics. The icon creator shouldn't be too hard to realize, DatGen has a similar feature (but it's screwed up, unfortunately). Ideally, it should accept a 44x44 pic of your BAT (taken from a screenshot), put it next to each other four times and add the icon borders. I once made a border template in Photoshop, perhaps this can be used as some kind of stamp.

 

@all: About the ID range for the texture index, please contact barbyW from the BSC, she can tell you how to add your personal range to the program.

[smoncrie 43]

People should be careful with diagonal transit enabling.   If you diagonal transit enable a large lot it will crash your game after a few minutes.  If I remember correctly, 2x2 and smaller is safe, but 4x4 and larger will cause a crash.

Unless the transit enabling is orthogonal, the behavior is often not what one would expect.  For example, in a diagonally transit enabled lot UDI and automata will follow the SC4 paths, but most of the traffic will NOT follow the paths, even if the paths are specified in the LotConfig.