Is there a way to get night lighting on a Mac?

[dudkis 108]

I have downloaded a bunch of buildings from Simtropolis, without the night lights working because I'm on a Mac. Recently, I have gotten fed up with this, and want to know if there is a way to get the SKU update on a Mac, or another way to get my downloaded buildings to light up.

Thanks!

Dudkis

[DCMetro34 577]

I am definitely no MAC expert.....but if I had to take a stab in the dark....I would say that it's the same download. If so, links are in my signature.

[dudkis 108]

But Mac users can't use the .exe files

[DCMetro34 577]

But Mac users can't use the .exe files

Have you tried using a program like File Juicer? (download link here)

[dudkis 108]

But then what kind of file would I make it into? And where would I put it?

[Hamish 1,370]

To put it simply, no. No update was released for the mac that fixed nightlighting. Its hardcoded into the game, and therefore illegal for us to try and fix it.

However, there are work arounds, but these exist in the model files, rather than the game, so it is rare to get a file that will work on macs.

There have been some though, and I will list all that I can find:

Mac Pack 3 a small collection of files that have been changed to light up on macs. There should also be a mac pack 1 and 2, however I am having trouble finding them, and they don't seem to be on the STEX.

All of the buildings that I create have the mac lighting fix:

New World Supermarket

The BeeHive

Santas Sleigh

Five Hundred Boylston

There are also some problems with capacities in stations on some lots, zelgadis has fixed some of the more popular stations:

MBS Station

Modern El Train Station

Subway Bus Roundabout

Subway Roundabout

Passenger rail station

High capacity monorail station

There you have it, all files that are created so that they work on macs.

I am planning to create more Bats and have the nightlighting working on macs, I am also planning to open up a thread that I will take nightlighting requests and change existing buildings into mac compatible ones.

Hope this answers your questions.

[LivingInThePast 364]

Unfortunately, there are very few solutions.

1. Wait for official Mac Packs

2. Use the Windows version

3. Request others with Windows versions to edit texture files for you

[dudkis 108]

Thanks for the help, Hamish

[blah12345 10]

I remember that in the Omnibus there was something for directly changing the file you downloaded..... IF it was up I could post the link and I don't remember exactly what is was.

[Hamish 1,370]

I've got the article your mentioning here:

10. STEX Building Nightlighting

You will notice that the buildings you download from the STEX will not light up when you are in night mode. This is a bug in the game for which EA made a patch but Aspyr did not. GoaSkin has manually altered a few STEX buildings to make the nightlighting work and they can be found in the Mac Pack Vol 1 on the STEX.

For those of you who would like to alter your STEX to make nightlighting to work yourself, I asked GoaSkin to provide instructions on how to do so, which he kindly supplied me with for inclusion.

Nightlighting Your STEX Buildings

By: GoaSkin

First of all, you will need either Virtual PC or Bochs (freeware) to run iLive Reader.

To begin, I will explain why night-illuminations work on original buildings:

The FSH-files (texture-bitmaps) on original buildings use group ID 1ABE787D and a unique instance ID. The right group ID on FSH files is why night illumination works on original buildings. On BAT buildings, on the FSH files, a random generated unique group ID is used while the instance IDs mostly start at 0.

The first step is to set 1ABE787D as group ID on the FSH files of a BAT building. But then you have a conflict with other buildings because the combination (group/ instance) will exist multiple times. That means wrong textures are shown on the wrong models.

To avoid this, the second thing you have to do is to look for free ranges of Instance IDs. You need to find out Instance ID blocks which aren't used neither on the Maxis files (simcity1-5.dat) nor on the Maxis landmarks. When you have a range, the easiest way is to clone all of the FSH files on a sc4model file and to shift meanwhile the instance IDs into a free range, and then delete the original FSH files. You can use the iLive Reader to do it (it needs virtual Windows on VPC or Bochs).

The last step is the modifications on the S3D files of the model. Because the Instance IDs of the used FSH files have changed, you need to adjust them.

That's all. To understand it better, you should compare a changed and an original building. Try it with a 1x1 building first! One example:

sc4model file with FSHs like this (group/instance)

2358973A 00000123

2358973A 00000124

2358973A 00000125

2358973A 00000126

after adjusting the group-IDs:

1ABE787D 00000123

1ABE787D 00000124

1ABE787D 00000125

1ABE787D 00000126

and after shifting the instance IDs to a free range:

1ABE787D FFF00123

1ABE787D FFF00124

1ABE787D FFF00125

1ABE787D FFF00126

Then you have to regard all of the S3D files. Look in tab mats ID and you'll find the old instance IDs. Replace the old prefix (000) everywhere with the new (FFF).

To do this you need, windows and SC4 for windows. Both of which your average Mac user won't have, however I do. The article itself is, I found, quite vague for a first time modding point of view, but it is a step in the right direction if you know what to do. I was going to update this before ST7, but now it might take a while to get to as we have to go through the process of actually getting the omnibus back up and update all links before we can edit articles.

[His Divine Hand 244]

I am also planning to open up a thread that I will take nightlighting requests and change existing buildings into mac compatible ones.

I maybe able to help you here. Playing on a Mac I set up with a dual boot, I modified around 120 model files to have night lites on the Mac. Now, I'd have to go through them to get all of the IDs I used to make sure there are no conflicts, but I'd also be willing to modify more files.

[Crissa 1]

Can we skip saying that it's 'illegal' to patch a program? It's not. It's inconvenient and near impossible. Even recently the US Supreme Court even issued a ruling that it was legal to patch programs to no longer use a dongle or other hardware control if doing so would be for the normal use of programs, <i>even if the copyright holder still sold the original product</i>. Personally, I didn't understand this ruling, as it was way outside their previous settings - but it was a series of industrial clients, dongles used to be big in the factory-floor software, and the majority on the Supreme Court are really business-friendly. So even if Aspyr is still selling the old program, the fact that technology has moved on and they haven't provided that particular patch basically means it's legal to do so. Legal, but very difficult. And unlikely that anyone would sue you, as you'd be adding, not subtracting, to the value of their product.

Honestly, I find the Mac so slow (nothing to do with the Mac, as the game is single-threaded) that such things are kinda annoying to have turned on. *grumble*

-Crissa

[blah12345 10]

Thank you Hamish for finding the article. I also happen to have a very slow PC laptop along with my wonderful Macintosh here, but I have no time for that .