BAT - Troubleshooting & General Discussion

[nycc06 229]

i have looked in the modds and downloads section but found nothing, but thanks for trying to help anyway

[Jazzmaster 716]

This picture...at the top left it's supposed to say "front view", but instead it says perspective.  Anybody know a way around this?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

lol, you right click on it (the text "Perspective" (or whatever label is there)), and change the view to front.  There are also other settings in that menu which you should check out. 

[Jazzmaster 716]

Thanks Jason, sorry if I sound a little ticked right now, but my BATs have been getting tossed aside all over the place by others. I think I'll try to do what you said and not let it get to me.

-Yoshiisland

[WeekendCityPlanner 19]

I don't know if this is the right forum, but here it is.  I released my BAT before it was tested ingame. (3971 Norslien Avenue, the one with the bad description) Now, that I want to test the lot, I can't because I can't find it anywhere in any of my cities.  What am I going to do? Just let the BAT rest in the STEX, have incredible paitence and waiting to find it, or is there a way to find it and test it ingame faster?  Also, I have the SC4 update for the custom lighting on BATs, and it worked for a little while, but now I can't get any custom lighting ingame. (This is needed for the night pics)

[Jasoncw 11,840]

For testing how the BAT itself is, you can put it on a Landmark lot in the lot editor, which you can then plop right away.

For testing growable lots, you just need to wait for them to grow I guess.

[WeekendCityPlanner 19]

Thanks for the advice!  This will help me rerelease of update 3971 Norslien Avenue.

[doodoo 0]

Hi,

I have a big problem, when I try to export one of my model,

it said "export failed, code = 18" and it's a maxscript error

after 1H30, what must I do?

Thanks

[Jazzmaster 716]

It's probably something with the LODs. Go to the parameters rollout (should be under the export button), click "re-fit LODs", and that may solve your problem. I'd do a preview render to make sure though.

-Yoshiisland

[scba 179]

I'm not quite sure how to word this without sounding stupid, but here we go. Restarting GMAX reset some options for me. When I go to select objects, even if I don't highlight the entire thing with the cursor, it will select it. Say, a string of supporting poles under the bleachers. If I go to select them, I get the entire stand, just because the edge of them are included in the highlight. How can I turn that off?

[brtim2 11]

So I think this might help you out, scba. Down at the bottom of gmax, is the collection of buttons for snap (2, 2.5, 3; angles; percentages; spinners). Just to the left of the snap groupings are three more buttons. The center one is the one, i believe, you are looking for. If it is clicked down it shall say 'window selection' when you hover over it. That means you have to have the entire object in your cursor box when trying to click, hold and drag to select objects. When it is not clicked, crossing selection, if you cross any edge of any object, or if any object is within your selection box, then you will select it.

At least that's what it sounds like to me. Hopefully that helped.

edit: which it would have, if i hadn't been ten minutes late. or if i had provided a picture like some over acheivers in the 'teasers' thread.

[scba 179]

Heh, thanks anyway.

[rocketoink 3]

I wanna ask something.It's a major issue for me with the BAT, nearly as big as the BAT itself. See, I work on a Mac,and I downloaded it from a site by Zelgadis,and I really thank him. But the problem was,the BAT was a bloody Unix Executable File, an I'm not sure how to install it on my Mac. Could you tell me if I can install it and if so how to do it? Edit; And,if you can ask questions about the BAT unrelated to problems,1.can you create certain stages for the lot's fire, and if so, 2.can you have more fire positions per stage,and 3.can you make 5 or 6 fire stages per BAT? It's because I want to create a 15x15 to 62x62 lot that is a forest of eucalyptus trees. There would be little campgrounds and a road going through it that would be able to link to SC4 roads and streets [Transit enabled, in short words] It would be a forest covering about two thirds of the lot with grassland and a few trees around it.Fire stage 1 would be the bottom of 2 or so trees on fire. Stage 2 those two trees are completely on fire. Stage 3 would be 2 massive fires on the far thirds of the eucalyptus trees.Stage 4 would be the entire forest on fire.Stage 5 would be the entire forest on fire including most of the grass and surrounding trees in the lot.Stage 6 the entire lot is on fire witth a huge fire collumn in the centre with branches of fire coming out of the top, like a tree.This would represent a firestorm. After this the lot would explode setting fire to everything around it. I just want to know whether I can create this lot on the BAT with my Mac.

[SimFox 802]

Hm a lot of questions...

Ok let's take if from the top, actually better to do it from the bottom so here it goes:

1. Fire is an effect and as such it is NOT made in either BAT or LOT editor. That is one that is already in game. You may try to make it in 3d but it is awfully complex and linking it into the game will be even more so as there is no clear instructions or even info how all the effects are functioning in game.

2. You're talking about making a LOT, so it is LOT editor that you should really be looking for for that. There is a very significant difference between LOT editor and BAT. First one is a sort of leggo assembly of things previously done in 3d and that have been"exported" - basically turned into 2d billboards which you arrange in lot editor.

3. Making forest lot of that size may prove imporssible if you are going to operate with single tree props. As any lot regardless of size has fixed amount of elements that could be stored in it's database - I think the number is 256, but don't take my word for it as I don't really know for sure, but anyway according to Barby it is some fixed number in lower-mid hundreds not thousands. So for LOT of 62x62 squares would be absolutely impossible as it would require 3844 base textures alone.

4. Making ANY of this working on MAC. Well I guess it all boils down to whether you use MAC just as hardware or as a packadge (with Apple OS) if latter then it wouldn't be possible or practical (via some code translator). If, however you install on it Windows XP (via boot camp) then you'll basically have regular PC and things should work fine.

[vicepres9 0]

In my hometown, Mobile, Al, we have reopened a historic hotel called The Battle House. It is joined to a new skyscraper called the RSA Tower. The Tower is the tallest on the Gulf Coast outside of Houston. It is a remarkable building. I would love to place it in Sim City but lack the skills and time needed to make it. The building would be a challenge. The sides and the spire have lights that rotate colors on special events. It would be amazing if this building could do the same.

Please help me out!! I would greatly appreciate a responce!!

[SimFox 802]

Any animation (and changing color is technically an animation) is quite problematic. Every distinct state should be represented by dedicated image. So smooth animation requires at lest 10 of them per second... That is a problem. Apart from that it could be done ia way mimicking seasonal props...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Seasonal props are 100% the way to go.  Basically, you make however many lighting versions you need, and then you make them into props.  Then you modd the different props so that each one only shows up for a certain time during the year.  Then in the lot editor, you stack all of the props right on top of each other.

I don't know how to do that though.  That's more of a modding thing.

[bbfan02 23]

Hi, I spoke to you about if I am going to try to "bat" buildings.

I got a better idea of what I need to start. First, when I go to the gmax download page, when I hit download, it says it isn't available to download anymore and then it says contact them. What do I do now?

Next, whenever I open up the SC4 Lot Editor, it never starts and I end up closing it because it doesnt respond.

Can someone help me?

Thanks a lot,

-bbfan02-

Well, I solved the gmax problem but I still have the lot editor problem.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Have you tried reinstalling it? I don't know, try asking in the lot editor forum, or maybe the bugs and technical issues forum.

[Odainsaker 2,134]

You may also check to make sure your SimCity 4 plugins folder, where custom content is usually placed, is kept to a minimum. If you have been a busy downloader, you could potentially have tens of thousands of individual files and other items in there taking up untold gigabytes of space. Each time the Lot Editor loads, it will have to scan through each item in the plugins folder to build its working catalogue of usable lots and props, and with large amounts of custom content in there, the sheer quantity can outright choke the program, make it take virtually forever to load, or just make it seemingly "hang" unresponsively depending on how fast and powerful your computer rig is setup.

A good practice always is to maintain both a "clean plugins" folder with the most basic Maxis necessities, which you will use in the Lot Editor, and an "ingame plugins" folder with all your favorite downloaded stuff along with the previous Maxis necessities, which you will actually use in the game. You can then switch back and forth between either folder by simply renaming the one you wish to work with as "plugins" before using either the Lot Editor of actually playing SimCity 4. Should you really need a particular item from another custom lot or prop pack, you can also move individual items in and out of the clean plugins folder as you work from there. This will also help keep dependencies to a manageable level.

This is only just one possibility for why the Lot Editor goes unresponsive at start, but I hope it helps.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I'm doing the B.A.T. essentials tutorial. Don't know if I'm doing something wrong but the arch tool acts just like the pan tool in my perspective window. I managed to rotate my view once but have no idea how I did it because 95% of the time I try to use it it just pans up down left and right. I tried playing with the little corner button to see what happens but it seems to just go right back to the bottom one(bottom of the three options). Is it just me or is my arch tool buggy?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I don't really know, but I do know that you should not use splines in the perspective viewport. I don't know if it is technically impossible, but I do know that it is not good practice. It's too hard to control exactly where the vertexes are going. Most of the time you do your work in one of the other viewports, and you watch the effects of your actions in the perspective viewport.

[nic49548 15]

I'm having trouble trying to texture buildings, it seems when you texture (with the Material Editor), you can only texture the whole part of a building (Where you applied the UVW Map). My question is, can you texture small parts of a building, or do you have to "Apply" the texture on the entire object you put a UVW Map on?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It's easiest to model things so that things that will use different textures are modeled as separate objects.  

You can texture things by face I think.  So if you convert the object into an editable polygon, and then select a face within the object, I think you can apply a texture to only the face you've selected.  I'm not sure on the specifics of that though.

You can also add a UVW Unwrap, which you can search googles for tutorials (Search for something like "Gmax UVW Unwrap Tutorial").

Or you can select the faces within an object that you want to texture, and you can detach (the button should be labeled as "Detach" and should be in the right pane menu, when editing a polygon) them from the rest of the object, to make them their own object, which makes managing the textures and UVW Map easier.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I do not use the perspective view to do work. I use it to get a 3D visual of the whole model. I also like to look at all windows sometimes while making adjustments. I managed to rotate around to the back wall of the building. But now I cannot rotate back to the front to see where I'm working in perspective view. I see that the pointer changes when I go over any of the 4 points on the big circle. But all I get is pan.....

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Are you using the left mouse clicker?

[Odainsaker 2,134]

When first starting inside the big circle guide created by arc rotate and holding the left button down and then moving the cursor, it should freely rotate the view about the center. When starting outside the big circle guide created by arc rotate and holding the left button down and then moving the cursor, it will seemingly tilt the view about the center (well, actually the axis perpendicular to the screen, but nevermind). Rather than dragging a mouse freehand, you can also use the four arrows at the cardinal points of the big circle guide to rotate solely along the horizontal or vertical.

However, where the center is matters. Usually things are rotated or tilted about the center of the view at the center inside of the big circle guide. There are also options for arc rotate to use a selected object's center as the rotation center, and if you have inadvertantly used one of these with an object selected, your model will either rotate around the selected object if that object's center is at the center of the viewport, or it will look like it is panning along some greater or lesser arc if the selected object's center is outside the viewport center or the big circle guide. I think this "Arc Rotate Selected" setting is the default. The more offset that selected object's center is from the viewport center, the flatter the arc will look until it looks like simple panning.

Try zooming out so that your entire model is inside the big circle guide, so that hopefully whatever is selected and being used as the center is also in there. You may or may not also try making sure sure you have no objects selected.

At the bottom left right of the program window is a button for arc rotate, if you hold it down long enough, it will open a drop-up menu of choices for the type of arc rotate and object selection/center combination. "Arc Rotate" is the simple arc rotation around the current center of the viewport, while "Arc Rotate Selected" and "Arc Rotate Sub-Object" uses the center of the whatever you might have selected or a particular object's set center as the center for rotation.

Err, I hope this is more helpful than confusing, hehe.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

ooohhh, I see now.  I thought he was making an arch with splines, but I get it now.

[nycc06 229]

does anyone know if it possible for me to send my gmax bat files to anyone else to export for me. At the moment for some reason, my computer cannot handle exporting any of my bats. after clicking export, the export process will commnence but after about 30 mins, the computer crashes and the export fails. this for some reason happens to all of my bats. could someone help me to export them?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You simply send them the gmax file and all of the texture files.  However, the file paths to the textures would be different, so they'd have to repath the textures, which shouldn't be a big deal if the scene was textured neatly.