JBM-Modding Questions (Help only)

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

This is where I will be posting questions Regarding Modding and Modding only.

 

My goals

 

Learn to make a growable Farm lot

Learn to make a 1x1 lot to use with the Farm lot

Learn to make UIs

ECt.

 

My 1st thing I am trying to learn is Making a growable IR-Lot

 

 

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

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Moving Stuff from one thread to this thread

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I tired to put in the hover querry today I looked at one of the files from BSC and made mine look like their. Just copied the

 

user Visable name

item name

 

properties  Now the prop wont show up in Lot Editor. I am not sure if I did something wrong or not. I know you want that implimented before we release the props. Can anyone help me out with this.

Can someone tell me if these two are set up right. and if they are how come its not showing up in LE.

 

PMiller

this is what JohnB wants our props to do. Does anyone know how to accomplish this?

PMiller

 

 

Date:10/8/2004 10:36:24 PM
Author:GrampaAl

quote>

Actually you have done it correctly. What ever the Exemplar name of the prop was before is NOT changed. So if your original Exemplar name you gave the prop when you used the PIM to make the prop from the model is still the same, it should appear in the LE as the same name, but you will see after the name #### which indicates this now has a hover query name.

So for this one let's say the name you gave this prop was originally 'PJM - Sunflowers'. Once you add the item name and the user visible name key they way you show that you have, the prop should now show up in the LE as 'PJM - Sunflowers ..####'.

Good luck

quote>

Thank you. It was DatGen that messed it up. I just did that with Ilive and it works fine now. Thank you. I'll post a pic later to show you all that Its working.

******************************************************************************

Ok here is the Barn before I made any changes. All I did was export my barn out to a model file. Opened PIM and dragged it to the IR- Industrial Icon.Took this snap shot before making any changes.

This pic shows the only change I made was the exemplar name. Which I changed to sues-sunflowers because I want the lot to say sues sunflowers. Then I saved.

 

This is what the Exemplar file looks like in Ilive.Now are there any other changes I need to make to make this a proper grow able.

Can someone tell me if this is set up right before I add it to alot.

PMiller

 

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

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QUOTE:

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Now to the answer. Yes, the building exemplar you have showed is correct to use for a growable farm lot.

All you need to do now, is to open the LE, select some already growable farm lot, and start editing. Don't forget to SaveAs, to make your own copy of the lot you are working on.

Once you have a lot open, simply place this building on the lot in the LE.  Now a small question from me. Why are you calling a barn, some kind of sunflower? Maybe I don't know what that prefix means. Sues - Sunflowers (spelling may be wrong)? What does that mean? Some kind a barn you use with Sunflowers? I guess I don't know of a barn like that.
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Hello

I gave the barn that name becasue I though it was the buidling exemplar that gave the lot the name. Which was my goal. In the past when I made a growable farm I named the lot what I wanted it but it still said it was the ingame farm which lead me to beleave that the buidling exemplar gave the lot the name. If I am wrong Then what do I rename or name to make the lot say its Sues Sunflowers and not petronas.

 

OK is there something in here I change to say the farms name?

I'll post a Lot exemplar later and ask more questions. This is where I am stuck at.

 

 

Also I used Petronas lot which is a stage 3 or something when I replace patronas which is the normal building with my building it changes from a stage 3 to a stage 1 or something like that. Now how do I keep the same info lot growth and stage growth the same for mine that petronas was. I'll post a pic also later to show what I am talking about so maybe I can get some help on how to change this stuff.

 

Also I am no longer using datgen. I am using Ilive. The only thing i will use datgen for is textures.

 

 

[GrampaAl 76]

Well, good you have arrived here at the ST Exchange forums. From here I can help you better.

You now have made and saved the lot right? I see the lot exemplar, in your post. And you saved as a stage 1 right? I do NOT recommend you make this a stage 3, at least not yet. You need to test this next, so leave it at stage 1.

Very good. Now the barn itself is going to be the main building here, it is the building which will have the scaffolding around it when it grows.

At this point, I would make a brand new city, draw a road, zone a 10x10 farm or larger. Give it a windmill for power, and also zone about 3 residential lots perhaps 2 or 3 deep. Once you have this city, save it, and exit the game. I always just use a name such as Farm Tester for the city. This can be any size, since it is brand new. I use medium tiles only, but you can use small or large also.

Also, if you don't have it yet, you should go to the mods area and download my Prevent_I-r_Lots.dat mod.
Place this mod in the Plugins folder, and also MOVE any other custom growable lots you have in either plugin folder out to some temporary location. KEEP THIS LOT in your plugins folder. It should be the ONLY farm lot in there.

Now, go back into SC4 and open that city you saved, and start it running. You should be surprised to see your farm growing! Presto! Good luck. It should be working. Also note that the name you gave it, Sues-Sunflowers should appear in the query as the lot name. Also it should appear in the hover query as well. You need to place the hover query tool over the barn of course.

Any other problems or questions, just post them here. I will try to guide you along.

Oh! BTW! When you are satisfied with your growing lot, just post a small screen shot of it grown right here. Not to brag about it, but to show that you have gotten to the next step. Once you have the lot grown, save the city once again. You will use this test city in the future for further testing.

Now remember, you need to move the Prevent_I-r_Lots.dat mod out of the plugins, and move the other custom growables you may have back in. You can now go on to whatever is next.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

ok thanks

I'll grab that file. I think its the only way to see if its working...

 

I am so much closer than I was before. I actually see a light at the end of the long tunnel..LOL

 

Thank you so much for your help.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

 

Hey Ok I put in the No Ir mod you told me to put in. Looks like my farm is not working. Not sure why. Going to del it and try again. I may have done something wrong.

[Daeley 46]

did you leave the farm at stage 1? If you made it stage 3 it might not grow because your city has insufficient demands... also, I noticed you have a strip of dirty industry closeby - farms really hate industry so I'd try it further away... perhaps even an empty testing city?

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

Ok,

 

I have a question.

Do I have to make a Custom Building Family 1st before I can use the Building Exemplar? I am not sure if I asked this right.

 

Let me explain what I have done so Far. Someone tell me if this is right.

 

Step1

I made a barn in BAT. Exported it out to a Model file.

Step2

Ran it thought the Plugin Manager to get the Discription file.

Now I dragged the model file to the IR button and droped it in, I then saved it.

Step3: Loaded LE

Loaded Petronas 6X4lot cleared everything off the lot put grass on it

Replaced the Building with my Building

Saved the file

 

This is the steps I did.

 

Daeley Yes I did as grampa al said and left it at stage 1. It will not grow.

 

I have done steps 2 and 3  five times now and it still will not do a darn thing.

 

ok here is the Buidling Exemplar( Disc) File.

ok here is what the LD file says. I am not sure why it says ZONE  I-HT

here is the LOT EXEMPLAR

 

I am still not sure how to get this all to work.

 

as you can see I left the growth stage as 1

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

ok I have attatched the files here. If someone can take a look at them and tell me whats wrong with them.

 

Thanks

 

[GrampaAl 76]

What did you do now? The Lot Exemplar above as your first one was correct, but this one below is messed up.

Notice the three lines Zone Types, Wealth Types and Purpose types.

These should NOT all be zeros. This will not grow as it is shown.

The zone type for Argricultural (as shown in the first picture you showed) is 7.

The Wealth Type for Agricultural low wealth or 1.

And lastly the purpose type for Agrucultural is 5.

So where you have three zeros in a row (how did THAT happen) should be 7,1,5 in that order.

Change this with the reader by double clicking on the line you want to change and typing in the correct number then clicking of the Apply button at the bottom.

Kind of curious here, up above you already had the correct information in the Lot exemplar, and now below you have it wrong, what happened in between to our exemplar?
-----------------
No need to worry about the Building family here, in fact if you wish you can delete that line altogether.

Second, the presence of industry and other things is not likely the problem but it IS recommended that you use a BRAND NEW city, with nothing else in it for testing.

By doing this, you are not messing up some nice useful city when things don't go right.

Again, just to repeat previous instructions: When making your brand new city:

1. Draw a piece of road at least 10 tiles lont.
2. Zone a Argicultural zone at least 10x10 or larger.
3. Zone 3 or 4 lots of residential 2 or 3 deep.
4. Place a windmill next to the zoned area for power.

Now run this test city. You SHOULD see your farm grow first. Then shortly after you SHOULD see a couple of houses grow.

Once you farm appears, there are jobs available which triggers the houses.

After you see your farm grow, you have reached the stage I thought you were at yesterday.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

 

is this correct now? I hope I fixed the right ones.

 

I somehow ended up doing the stuff over again. I am not sure why it ended up being different. Thanks for the help.

 

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

ok before I post the pic I want to say

 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!!

 

O my It finally worked. I thought It would never work. Boy I am going to do a dance. YES YES YES!!!! I am so very happy and pleased it worked.

 

 

ok as you can see it worked. OK next task.

How do I make the 1X1 lot Farm field. This way it can be the sunflowers instead of the orange trees.

 

DO I use a park lot and then give it  a Instance ID or do I load a ingame Farm Field or an IR lot. This one I have not figured out how to do looking at your files. So I need to know 1st is what type of lot do I create the Farm Field. I know I am suppose to give it an instance Id of my own choosing then put it into the Farm Field area in the Building Exemplar. I just need to know how to make the field. I am so excited now. This is just wonderfull. There is hope.... W|OW I can't tell you how this makes me feel... Its been a long road for me to get this figured out. I could not have done this with out someone special whom I will not say their name who bought me the game so I could continue my work. I also could not accomplish this task with out the kindness of Grampa Al who chose to help me even if I was a pain to work with. I am so very happy this is working.

 

[GrampaAl 76]

Congratulations! You have gotten your first farm to grow. I am also happy for you. When I first did that, it was not with such specific instructions, it was sort of an accident. I wasn't trying to make one grow, it just happened. Well, let me tell you I looked at the one that grew for a LONG LONG time to try to figure out what the difference was between that one and any other that didn't grow. Back then it was quite difficult. I'm glad to say it is so much easier today.
------------------------
Now the next step. What you want to do is: Using the LE, open one of the EXISTING FARM FIELDS, then modify it to your own desire. Then SaveAs. Now don't change one thing on that little 1x1 lot, but write down the IID that the LE creates for you.

Now place THAT IID into the Field Lots property of the Building exemplar or your lot, and use ONLY that single IID. Don't put any others in there or you can have MULTIPLE field lots that appear with each farm.

Happy lot building! You may be destined to be one of the great lot builders here on ST.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

thats where the propblem is. It wont let me do a save as....

 

here look

the save as is not white but grey which means it will not let me do it....I can only save...

 

I do have the new version of LE it still wont let me save as... is there another way to do this?

 

I just reinstaled the LE and it still wont let me so a save as. I can only do a save. Any ideas how to do this with out making a new one in Ilive? Darkmatter told me to study the two exemplars for one of the field lot which is good and all if I understood everything it was doing. Since I pretty much only use ILIVE now I need to figure this out. Can I make a new one in ilive and give it a Id or does it have to be done in LE. I'll try to get it figured out. I'll wait for your responce in the mean time.

 

Also with out the PIM I would never have gotton the growable thing.

 

[GrampaAl 76]

Ooops! Me Bad!

Since it won't let you do the SaveAs, just do the save. This will put your modified lot into the MyDocs/SimCity4/Plugins root folder.

From here you will need to change the IID of the lot you just saved so it does not over ride the original in game lot.

So you were right in the first place about making a new IID. Can I assume you know how to make a new IID that won't conflict. If not,here is a simple method which works. Take the little grassy park, open it in the LE, and do a SaveAs with that. It will allow this. Now in the Plugins folder as above, find that park and write down the IID. Now DELETE that park lot, and use THAT IID for your farm lot. To change the IID of the exemplar for your 1x1 lot, just select the exemplar and then click on the FileInfo button. Then in the resulting dialog, click on edit. Now in the Instance box at the bottom of the dialog, type in 0xNNNNNNNN using of course the 8 digits you wrote down to replace the N letters above. Now click on OK, close the dialog box, and click on Save on the toolbar to save the changes.

Now follow the previous steps and place that IID you just used in your growable lot in the Field Lots property. This acts as a pointer to that little lot you made.

At this point, go and grow your farm again in your test city. (You can just grow another one if you wish to see the difference).

Good luck

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

LOL,

Ok thanks... that helps me out alot thanks....

 

I'll have to try that possably tomorrow. I am redoing my computer possably today. A fresh Start again. Last time it was done was last Dec. Did not quite make a year, O well. Thanks I will definitly do that. Thank you so very much. for your quick response.

 

PMiller

 

[GrampaAl 76]

Date: 10/14/2004 11:07:29 AM
Author: pmiller19574

LOL,

Ok thanks... that helps me out alot thanks....

I'll have to try that possably tomorrow. I am redoing my computer possably today. A fresh Start again. Last time it was done was last Dec. Did not quite make a year, O well. Thanks I will definitly do that. Thank you so very much. for your quick response.

PMiller

quote>

What do you mean by redoing my computer? It is having problems?

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

about back online...

Yes I had installed the service pack 2 and it kinda screwd up things. So today we decided to back up and then format and reinstall Xp... I am about done installing stuff. I got the 1x1 lot done today I did not get a chance to mess with the IId yet.

I'll try to get that figured out after I get RH and all installed.

[GrampaAl 76]

Yes, I have heard that WinXP SP#2 has problems, or compatability issues. I don't plan to update as long as my current system is running well.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

Well I am back up and running with Bat and all just have a few other things to install.

I'll get to that file here prob tonight as I have to install stuff on DHs computer tonight he to redid his.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

 

ok I got it to grow. Nxt two pics will show the little problem I am having now..

not sure if its just a glitch on my puter or not but anyways here

 

ok as you can see right next to it I got this. not sure if its becasue I zoned so large or not. Will try to do some testing in the morning.

 

any thoughts.

 

[GrampaAl 76]

lol! How many field lots did I tell you to put into the Field Lots property of the building exemplar? One (only!)is what you need.

Now I have not tried zoning that large, but if you have more than one field lot IID in the building exemplar and one of them can't be found, things like this can happen.

Try zoning just 8x8 or 6x6. What is your lot size? Make the lot just 2 tiles wider and longer than the lot itself.

Now zone about 5 of that exact size, and see if all of them get sunflowers. You are now learning how to be a tester! lol!

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

Date:10/15/2004 3:06:42 AM
Author:GrampaAl

lol!  How many field lots did I tell you to put into the Field Lots property of the building exemplar? One (only!)is what you need.

Now I have not tried zoning that large, but if you have more than one field lot IID in the building exemplar and one of them can't be found, things like this can happen.

Try zoning just 8x8 or 6x6. What is your lot size? Make the lot just 2 tiles wider and longer than the lot itself.

Now zone about 5 of that exact size, and see if all of them get sunflowers.  You are now learning how to be a tester! lol!

quote>

That was all I put... Just one. I'll relook at it to make sure but that was all I put in was one.

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

ok I checked the file took some snapshots so you can see what I did.

 

1st

The Id for the farm field was the only thing I changed.

here is the building exemplar as you can see there is only one field lot for the building exemplar.

 

this was the only other thing I changed. The name.

Did I do all of this right?

 

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

I noticed one more thing. That many sunflowers is a real lag in computer speed. I think I will put it back though BAT and do some changes like more flowers in like a pack of them more than what I have then Load LE and make less flowers on the lot.

 

I just got done redoing my display drivers so its not that. Which means something is conflicting I think with the 1x1 lot field I did and the main lot I think. If I just plop it by holding the mouse key down it will plop like 2 of the lots in one thing. Like the above pic. And it grows it under the sunflowrs but if you buldoze that little section the main lot will grow back. I am really not sure what is going on now. I am going to del this field and try again after I pull it back into the BAT and do some adjustments. I really do not like the back side view of the flowers on the lot so I am going to try to put them back to back in BAT and then see if i like the look more. Other than these twi things the lot seems to be working fine.

[GrampaAl 76]

Date: 10/15/2004 10:02:35 AM
Author: pmiller19574

I noticed one more thing. That many sunflowers is a real lag in computer speed. I think I will put it back though BAT and do some changes like more flowers in like a pack of them more than what I have then Load LE and make less flowers on the lot.

I just got done redoing my display drivers so its not that. Which means something is conflicting I think with the 1x1 lot field I did and the main lot I think. If I just plop it by holding the mouse key down it will plop like 2 of the lots in one thing. Like the above pic. And it grows it under the sunflowrs but if you buldoze that little section the main lot will grow back. I am really not sure what is going on now. I am going to del this field and try again after I pull it back into the BAT and do some adjustments. I really do not like the back side view of the flowers on the lot so I am going to try to put them back to back in BAT and then see if i like the look more. Other than these twi things the lot seems to be working fine.

quote>

Two things I see that can possibly be a problem.

1. The IID you show for the field lot, does NOT look like it was generated by the LE. Looks like you created it on your own. THIS IS PLAYING WITH FIRE and could cause serious problems later. I recommend you use the LE to open the little grassy park, modify it to make your SunFlowers Field lot,and then do a SaveAs. The LE will generate a SAFE number to use.

2. Also, you said I believe that you bulldozed the main lot? If you bulldoze the main lot, you ALSO NEED TO BULLDOZE ALL THOSE FIELD LOTS THAT GREW AROUND IT. The little 1x1 fields should NOT be left in the zone without a farm. This is what is causing additional farms to attempt to grow in the area covered by fields.
---------------------------

One more thing. Can you post a picture of your sunflower prop as it shows in the LE under the Prop tab. I would like to see the IID and the description of your prop. Thanks

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

I am pretty sure its fixed this time..

 

This is what I did this time,

 

I did as you instructed. I made the lot in LE then saved.

 

Then I made the grass lot and gave the Field lot its  ID.

Then I renamed the file itself

Then used live to rename stuff and made sure the old Instance Id was missing and put in the new one.

then i loaded the barn exemplar and  edited the Farm lot field. Now what I did differently was I del the old instance id Lot it was looking at then added a new one and gave it the new Id.

 

Saved then loded it into SC4. And it seems to be working.

[GrampaAl 76]

Ouch! My head is hurting. Too many things at once for this poor old man.

I edited my post above, please have another look.

Also, how about attaching the field lot you made, in a .zip file. I would like to have a look at it.

Thanks

[Mary Maurine Mayo 984]

Date:10/15/2004 10:57:45 AM
Author:GrampaAl

Ouch! My head is hurting. Too many things at once for this poor old man.

I edited my post above, please have another look.

Also, how about attaching the field lot you made, in a .zip file. I would like to have a look at it.

Thanks

quote>

 

Sorry Keeping you busy this morning. Ok here is the screen shot for the prop as it appears in LE

[GrampaAl 76]

Ah, yes. Thankyou.

I am trying to trace down a problem with the LE itself showing a lag when certain props are shown in the prop window. Do you have this problem?

Now, the number of props you have on a field CERTAINLY CAN cause a lag of the computer. We have sort of decided that for a minimum system, the field lots should have no more than 3 props. For a medium system not more than 9 props and for a really high end system, not more than 12-15 props depending on the amount of memory.

I would stick with a max of 9 props per field so most people will have very few problems with lag. Zone the smallest possible zone for the size of your farms will minimize this problem.

Can you still attach the field lot itself. I don't need the props or models, just the .sc4lot file (zipped of course) so I can take a look at the IID's and the pointers. It does seem to be working, but I would like to make sure there aren't any hidden problems to rear their ugly heads laters. Thanks