Supersize Me!

[simsmart 1]

I just wanted anyone who did not know this to know this. A while ago my region became too small. My friends wanted to have a city within a region but I did not want them to take up my space, or ruin my neighbor connections. And so on and so forth. I knew a bit about the way that a region works and I thought... what if I could just make an extra-large region. I could solve all of my problems.

I have minimal experience with the modding of SC4, even a monkey could figure this out. I opened the config file located in the region's directory within the SC4 (my documents) directory. All I did was copy and paste etc. etc. It worked! Now I have a massive region to play around in. I am not planning to preform any fancy tests on load time, but feel free to do it yourself. Some of you probally already know this so ignore it. i did this a while ago but never actually wrote this until now.

[crazyyaya 4]

I did know about this, but many new members will be glad you brought this up I'm sure. It's very useful to know.

[BurroDiablo 222]

Wll, I for one didn't know about this... I thought it could be done but I didn't know how (since theres some massive maps on the STEX). Thats for sharing, i'll definitely be trying this out.

[Godzillaman 21]

Mcdonalds can supersize you.

Making large maps becomes fun until your comp cant take no more. Remember to keep the region a size your computer can handle.

[Skram 4]

Cool! I never knew that you could do that!! Thanks for sharing!

[simsmart 1]

For exactly how to do it (with paint)

1. make the overall size of the background larger

2. copy the area already there

3. paste the copied area next to the first one

4. (optional) change the config colours in some of the areas

5. save and load region

[Cleaner475 150]

Yeah its very easy to do just edit the config file - in paint...

blue (large city tile) = 4x4 pixels

green (medium city tile) = 2x2

small (red) = 1x1

I think I got that right - then edit the cofig using these and you'll have a massive region, depending on how many pixels you add

Richard

[Smarty218 2]

Nice to know!

[1ajs 49]

know about doing this for a long time...

[Robbert 0]

That region reminds me of SimCityScape on the official Simcity 4 site...

Anyway yeah thats really useful, I always use the config.ini to make the region all big squares for metropolis regions and small squares for small villages.

[mkaustin 1]

Remember, unless I am mistaken, you can only add on to the config file to the right and bottom. If you take the config from an existing region, and add to the left or top, you will lose cities.

someone correct me if I am wrong.

[waway625 72]

thats how i expand my region too..

i have a saved JPEG file of the region, then edit it in photoshop to make it larger (proper pixel count of course) then edit/enlarge the original config file (keeping the orig colors but adding colors according to how i want the expanded region divided)

then load a new region and load the map/config..then move the existing cities to their proper tiles

thus from an original size of this:

my region is now this big:

[Explodingsims 3]

Yarrrrggg!!! Thats a huge region!

But anyways, thanks for sharing this! It's come in handy for what I'm trying to do so far!

Of course, with some playing around in paint, you can make some fun shaped regions!

[GMT 389]

Originally posted by: waway625 thats how i expand my region too..

i have a saved JPEG file of the region, then edit it in photoshop to make it larger (proper pixel count of course) then edit/enlarge the original config file (keeping the orig colors but adding colors according to how i want the expanded region divided)

then load a new region and load the map/config..then move the existing cities to their proper tiles

thus from an original size of this:

my region is now this big:

quote>

how did u manage to expand your region to the left?

[waway625 72]

i just edited/expanded the original JPEG file and config files via photoshop and created/loaded a new region

with the new region in place, i just export the existing cities from the old (smaller) region to the new (larger) one..it can be a bit tedious if you have a lot of cities to export but i figured its the only way i can build a bigger region

@Explodingsims huge indeed lol, took me about 30 minutes to create that (using CTRL+SHIFT+R)

[Explodingsims 3]

Wow, 30 minutes you say? Every Map I ever imported using CTRL-SHIFT-R always takes at least a day.....But they, I do have a crap computer...

[waway625 72]

yep 30-40 minutes..its just a 68x26 config file anyway, its not that big perhaps? or maybe becauuse the terrain isnt that complicated, (fewer mountains?)

[rhatsa26b 3]

I know how to expand a region. I have done this on three of my last four regions. It is simply done by going into Simcity 4's region folder (on my computer it is in C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Owner\My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions). You go into your region's folder you'll see a bitmap image named config.bmp. Enter this to change the shape, layout, or the size of your region. I will note that by doing this the expanded section will be absolutely flat and any contouring will need to be done if you want this area to conform with the rest of your region.

[TM 0]

how does one do this with mac version?

[Hamish 1,370]

With a Mac, It would be done exactly the same. But of corse using some different applications.

[TM 0]

Ok apparently I'm doing this wrong haha. I tried it two different times. Once I did Sim City 4 Data > Regions > Berlin > Congfig.BMP.

The BMP file was this 16x16 image that was green and red. First attempt I copy and pasted it into a bigger image using photoshop, then put it back in the same folder, nothing happened. Second try I copy and pasted the file a couple times in the folder, nothing happened.

Am I missing a fatal detail?

[outriderdriver 4]

im sure it would only work with paint. It has to stay in pixel size also, no blowing up. Im sure you know already how to make sure your using the right colors and the right configurations.

[TM 0]

Ok nevermind, I just tried a different folder, (Home > Documents > Sim City 4 Data > Regions.)

I took a config.bmp image that was 16x16 from that folder and put it into photoshop again, making sure I had everything aligned. I turned it into a 96x96 image and put 36 of the original images into it.

I loaded the region on Sim City 4 and it took my "state of the art in terms of two years ago" computer a couple minutes to load it.

Now the only problem is the region viewer keeps the same viewing elevation as it did with the default size region. So my only question is how does one change the viewing elevation to encompass the whole region?

[Hahayoudied 3]

How do I make the region bigger without photoshop? My photoshop program expired last week......

[nickjbor 0]

Originally posted by: Explodingsims Wow, 30 minutes you say? Every Map I ever imported using CTRL-SHIFT-R always takes at least a day.....But they, I do have a crap computer...

quote>

 

If you have water tiles, edit them out of the config bmp file. I did this and cut my rendering time by about 40%.

[Hamish 1,370]

Originally posted by: Hahayoudied How do I make the region bigger without photoshop? My photoshop program expired last week......quote>

There are other applications other than photoshop. Try another one that you have or you could use Gimp.

[Hahayoudied 3]

Does the regular paint program work also?

[ixnayonthetimmay 16]

MSPaint works, since the file is saved as a .bmp. Just be sure not to save it as anything else. Also, be careful when doing this; be sure to back up your region before trying to expand it. If you don't, and the config.bmp file gets messed up, then you will lose cities. It's happened to me!

[simsmart 1]

Just noticed:

You can do this more easily with the startup manager. I don't have the link though.

[GMT 389]

Originally posted by: waway625 i just edited/expanded the original JPEG file and config files via photoshop and created/loaded a new region

with the new region in place, i just export the existing cities from the old (smaller) region to the new (larger) one..it can be a bit tedious if you have a lot of cities to export but i figured its the only way i can build a bigger region

@Explodingsims huge indeed lol, took me about 30 minutes to create that (using CTRL+SHIFT+R)quote>

Ok, I c.

I thought there's an easier way that you happened to discover.

just like expanding the config.bmp to the right/down, only with a trick.

thanks though for the answer :-)

EDIT: yes, the regular paint program works aswell, but believe me, you'll quit after 5 minutes if you try to paint a realistic terrain with mspaint.

gimp or pshop is the best solution here (I prefer pshop, but thats expensive)