Questions about texture mod plugins

[rowanoak 0]

My questions has to do with maps downloaded from Simtropolis that need to be rendered before they can be played.  I'm a bit confused about mods that do such things as change rock and water textures and/or add snow to higher elevations, such as the "Columbus Textures For Jeronijs Mod."

Two questions:

(1) Should ALL texture mods be in the plugin folder before rendering?  Or are there some texture mods that can be installed during the city building phase, and if so, how can you tell them apart?

(2) Can plugins that directly affect the rendering process be removed after rendering is complete?

Dave

[Sim_Air 2]

(7 posts in 3 years...!)

1) There is no need to place texture modds in the plugins folder before rendering unless the map you downloaded actually has texture modds. All textures modds acan be installed and uninstalled during building cities. The change will not affect your cities in ANY way. Therefore there is no "telling them apart".

2) Yes indeed; you might like the map but not the texture, so you will be free to delete those texture plugins and use yours.

*

Also, i am not sure if it necessary to install texture modds before rendering but i believe you need to, in order to see how the map looks when the process is complete.

Hope i helped, take care!

[prince_of_sims 0]

If you install texture mods after the region has been already rendered, when you go into a city, save, and exit, there will be a patch of different terrain in your region. Other than that, there is no difference.

Also, some maps require a custom water level mod in order to be rendered correctly. This is generally indistinguishable from a normal terrain mod, if the water mod is part of the terrain mod (e.g. Colombus Terrain Mod).

[MayorTim 16]

You don't HAVE to install terrain modds before rendering a region, however, if you don't, you will have to open, save, and exit each city to see the terrain modd (this is the same thing as re-rendering, but takes more time - so why bother?)

[rowanoak 0]

First, thanks for the replies.  They really helped.

(Q) (7 posts in 3 years...!) (/Q)

. . . and all 7 posts in the past month.   Ah well, what I can I say?  I tend to just lurk and see if I can find my answers on my own but there usually comes a time when I'm forced to post.  Actually I've haven't been playing SC4 for the past two years because my old computer choked on the graphics when my cities started growing.  Now, with a new computer, I decided to give SC4 another whirl.

(Q) If you install texture mods after the region has been already rendered, when you go into a city, save, and exit, there will be a patch of different terrain in your region. Other than that, there is no difference. (/Q)

Then I CAN change the textures after the map is rendered.  This clears up a lot of my confusion.  I thought that the textures my region ended up when the rendering process had finished were the textures I was stuck with.  This is really good to know. 

[upate]  Just tried this and it works!  Now I'm really a happy gamer . . .

I really appreciate everyone's replies.  Thank you!

Dave