SimCityPak - Modding Tool

[twiztidbagz 2]

I just read thru the 5 pages of this post. And the progress made in this short amount of time has been astounding. I have not downloaded any of the mods, I will wait until Oopie or Warrior give the all clear. This post made me think of my love for changing Red Alert game files lol. Back then it was as simple as Right click, open with ~ notepad. And make whatever changes you want.  

[oppie 487]

@twiztidbagz - I remember those days of editing the rules.ini to cheat your way to success by making one unit super powerful. Fun times.
 
Anyway, regarding the lighting editor which has been in the latest release of SCP, I'm trying to expand it to a simple lot editor by also allowing the modification of props such as trees, cars, crates and the likes. In the screenshot below for example, the red boxes represent the placement of parked cars and trees.
 

[VXD 0]

Oppie you are a hero and a true asset for the whole SimCity society!

Warms my hard to see you're still running strong after 10 years

[unlawful_combatant 3]

So what is the image format for the 8 and 16 bit images? I want to take a crack at modding the tutorial.

[herisson2 0]

For the past few days I've been digging into the deepest depths of the property files, mainly to see what the possiblilties for modding are. A lot of files are pretty easy to identify, and there are already a few interesting possibilities just by messing around with the menu items;

 

Starting with quite a biggie; It's possible to make every single network type drawable outside the city borders. I modded the debug item for the regional highway to draw a different network (in this case the low density street) and lo, I was able to draw streets outside the city limits - and they transported cars, water and electricity just like you'd expect. Contrary to the regional highway, I could even bulldoze them. However - not only can you not build anything on them outside the city, they also don't terraform the land around them, so it's almost impossible to make very good use of.

 

Secondly, you can easily swap around modules for different buildings. I made the shuttle bus garage available for the larger bus terminal, and everything worked perfectly - it sent out shuttle buses and normal buses just fine. You can also quite easily modify their placement - like making them buildable on the side of a road.

 

I've tried finding how the game decides the limits for the amount of modules (I'd love to remove those limits, why not have more than 4 cell blocks), but so far I haven't even found a trace of those values. In the same way, construction cost, maintenance cost or anything else that could make 'cheating' possible seems to be hidden.

 

"construction cost, maintenance cost or anything else"

Maybe the  “mRestServerURL”  in the "main" .js file can explain this. 

[jef76 0]

any ideas on the loader error yet oppie ???

[oppie 487]

@jef76 - it's hard to say which of the 3rd party libraries is the one that's missing. I'm building in a more elaborate error message for the next release that will hopefully shed some more light on your problem. Which version of the .NET framework do you have installed? (you need 4.0)

 

@herrison2 - That's an old post - we know where all of this stuff is located and it's the EcoGame packages. However, while modding them works, it leads to rollbacks once the game's servers try to validate the actions you're performing in-game. So for now, I'd advise against modifying that data, unless you want to run the risk of losing your cities.

[frankc123 2]

@oppie - Is there anyway to search properties for a value inside of it? Like i have the instanceID for a PNG and i want to see what properties reference/use that PNG.

[warrior 169]

@oppie - Is there anyway to search properties for a value inside of it? Like i have the instanceID for a PNG and i want to see what properties reference/use that PNG.

Yes if you right click the PNG, and click Search PROPs with Instance.

You can also access this window from the toolbar in the main window with "Search PROPs..."

[ProcsKalone 294]

@warrior & Oppie: Im not sure if its just me but it seems like between v1.0.3 and 1.0.4 the Search function you mentioned stopped working. I say this because I've wondered why a couple times I've tried searching for props and nothing showed up in the results field. So I went back to 1.0.3 and tried doing the exact search for example 0xb88f69c2 randomly, it turns up with over 8 results while 1.0.4 shows nothing. I've tried running them under admin and such and still no go. Perhaps this is what frankc123 means.

 

Btw, amazing work so far Oppie and the dev team. You guys truly are a beasts

[frankc123 2]

Yea i just tested that. It doesnt return any results when searching for a value like that. If anything wouldnt it always return the value that your original clicked on and searched with?

On a side note i have found how to change the price of a building. You can plop it and... thats about it. It will generate power/water or whatever it does but it always returns null stats about it. Null meaning it wont pull any data for the building such as output power or maintance cost or anything. Then the game complains and "Rollsback". I got bored and found that also i named about 40 or so buildings to there instanceID's

 

 

Check this out. Its a start

https://i.imgur.com/PNeZ8m4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eCwGigv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Dn7GHic.jpg

 

[warrior 169]

Oh right, I found the problem and it will be fixed in the next version, or if you can/want you can download the source code from Codeplex and compile it yourself.

[ProcsKalone 294]

TY

[jef76 0]

@oppie    according to my registry am running 4.0 frameworks,win 7 lastest update....  has me stumped

[oppie 487]

The big red logo on the Nissan DLC that's practically visible from space bothered me - I would use the DLC a lot more without it. So, now that the latest in progress version of SimCityPak allows me to move/remove decals, I went ahead and made a version that doesn't show the logo. The billboard still contains the logo, but I don't mind that one as much.

This decal stuff is pretty interesting - If we can find out where they are defined, we might be able to add all sorts of custom logo's.

NissanLogoRemover.zip

[oppie 487]

We've uploaded version 0.1.0.5 of SimCityPak at https://simcitypak.codeplex.com/releases/view/105081.

For those who were having errors opening the property files - I've added a more elaborate error report that dumps the entire stack trace to the screen, so hopefully that'll help us to finally track down what's going wrong there.

[ProcsKalone 294]

In 1.0.5

The search for prop in other instances when right clicking from context view works, but the SearchPROPS dropdown from the File Bar turns up every instance no matter what search result.

 

Just for reference, in 1.0.4 the SearchPROPs dropdown menu worked but the search for prop instance in context menu didn't work.

[warrior 169]

In 1.0.5

The search for prop in other instances when right clicking from context view works, but the SearchPROPS dropdown from the File Bar turns up every instance no matter what search result.

 

Just for reference, in 1.0.4 the SearchPROPs dropdown menu worked but the search for prop instance in context menu didn't work.

 

That's strange as the searching is the same for both. I've just made some changes to the search view, so you can now choose the type of property and I made sure it works as intended, so it will be fixed in the next version.

[ProcsKalone 294]

TY again warrior

[rejooh 3]

We got some new DLC everybody. It seems that there is no toothpaste available for marketing deals in Germany, but because Sim City kindly downloads everything to my computer, here are the Instance-ID's anyway:

<Instance id="0x103bb38a" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="World’s Largest Ball of Twine Sign" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0x2ad521ba" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="Dolly the Dinosaur Sign" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0x3cfdeaba" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="Giant Garden Gnome" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0x51b708a9" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="Llarry the Llama" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0x59f58f96" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="Giant Garden Gnome Sign" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0x83559008" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="MaxisMan Statue Sign" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0x83b7f016" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="World’s Largest Ball of Twine" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0xd1c6c819" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="Llarry the Llama Sign" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0xdae498c6" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="Dolly the Dinosaur" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />
<Instance id="0xed2cd768" groupId="0x56f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="MaxisMan Statue" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />

plus one I forgot last time:

<Instance id="0xe65ba58f" groupId="0x47f0c900" typeId="0x00b1b104" DisplayName="French Police Station" Comment="" Hidden="false" Tags="" />

[oppie 487]

@rejooh - Thanks, I've added them to the instance registry and they will be in the next version.

[frankc123 2]

Hey i found a bug when doing export on multiple files and when the instance is labeled with characters that would be invalid when saving. Such as 0x3f8662ea-0x00000000-0x78b21e35 that is labeled "SCP_Large Field w\ Parking (§)". The only invalid character i can see is the "\". I debugged it with VS and after testing on multiple files named in the same fashion and they all returned same exceptions. Sorry if this is already known. Here is the stack from the error. 

 

 

System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException was unhandled

  HResult=-2147024893

  Message=Could not find a part of the path 'H:\Users\Frank\Desktop\SimCity Source\jpg\SCP_Large Field w\ Parking (§)_0x3f8662ea-0x00000000-0x78b21e35.jpg'.

  Source=mscorlib

  StackTrace:

       at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)

       at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)

       at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize)

 

 

 

I removed the last bit which is irrelevant to the exception. You could fix this by one of two ways. Not allowing invalid file characters in the typeregistry. Or a better permanent fix would be for when writing the file to the system it will replace/remove the invalid characters or show a dialog allowing the user to change the filename right then.

[jef76 0]

at system.reflection.runtimemodule.gettypes

@sytem.reflec.runtimeModule.getTypes()

@system.reflec.assembly.getTypes()

@ gibbed.Spore.Properties.propertyFactory..ctor() in J:\My

Documents\visual Studio 2010\Projects\SimCityPak\SimCityPak\

Packagereader\Properties\PropertyFile.cs:line79

 

sorry posted in wrong thread origanally

[frankc123 2]

Just woundering if i changed the heightmaps to lets say solid black and loaded the game what would you think the outcome would be? I am going to just start brute forcing the possibilities of this game.

[oppie 487]

@jef76 - I've taken a look at the offending line of code but there doesn't really seem anything wrong with it - The best info I can find about it online is that it's supposedly a bug in the .NET framework that should be solved in .NET 4.5...

@frank123 - I don't know what happens if you change region map information - experimentation is encouraged.

Personally I've taken another stab at trying to make sense of the RW4 3d model files, with moderate success. In some very specific cases I'm able to insert a custom texture, but I can't figure out what's wrong. If anyone here has any experience with deciphering file formats and is willing to help, I would be extremely grateful. I have the feeling that we're very close to being able to modify vehicle textures (and perhaps even the 3d models), which would be a huge leap forwards for the modding community.

[jef76 0]

@ oppie    thanks for response and your time looking into my problem.

I am going to start researching the problem tonight.

srry bout my sloppy spelling in my previous post...

 

thanks again for ur help

[Seiniyta 1]

You think it'll be possible to add zoning outside the city plot? Or is that something that's hardcoded in? Also, unlocking the camera which be cool. 

[oppie 487]

@Seiniyta - I'm pretty sure it can be done at some point, but it's not something I'm focusing on at the moment and one important thing to realize is that buildings/roads do not alter the terrain outside the city border so unless the land is completely flat, it's going to look bad.

Anyway, I realized that one of the few texture files that I can currently edit are actually the road textures, so I made a first experimental version of a Euro Roads Texture mod:

[Seiniyta 1]

@Seiniyta - I'm pretty sure it can be done at some point, but it's not something I'm focusing on at the moment and one important thing to realize is that buildings/roads do not alter the terrain outside the city border so unless the land is completely flat, it's going to look bad.

Anyway, I realized that one of the few texture files that I can currently edit are actually the road textures, so I made a first experimental version of a Euro Roads Texture mod:

 

What dimensions are the road textures? I think I'd could create some fancy high-tech looking roads  

[rejooh 3]

@Seiniyta The road texture's dimensions are 1024 by 64.