PLEX on the STEX - Community Support

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Hi!

I started to build a new plugin folder for one of my new cities and found some interesting stuff into my back-up folders which stuffs used belong to the SimPEG site. @pezzajnuploaded a Cruise Ship Port relot here onto the STEX which seems to be a part of the original Cruise Shipe Port Set which was released by @Jason5871over at SimPEG (at least according to Pezzajn that is his set, but on the CBEX PEG link list says it belongs to RebaLynnTS, but after checking the original readmes, I guess, she only helped with some modding stuff... anyway). This CSP Set is not available anywhere, since the cease of SimPEG site, but I have this set, I guess all the pieces (AK Cruise Ship Port, CSX Pier Mall, ENDs, Fillers, Transitions, Fire Station). So question, who can make contact Jason via emial, since he has no activity here, and hasn't visited the page since April 2014, or can we upload these lost items as good faith? 

Other thing: in this topic 2nd post @Hellkensaid that he has some non-PLEX/PEG forum attachment files from SimPEG, but at that time Pegasus own files had the priority. Well, I don't think that anybody dealt with the rest of those stuffs so far. I'm curious, what those files could be...

- Tyberius

[catty-cb 4,392]

16 hours ago, Tyberius06 said:

Hi!

I started to build a new plugin folder for one of my new cities and found some interesting stuff into my back-up folders which stuffs used belong to the SimPEG site. @pezzajnuploaded a Cruise Ship Port relot here onto the STEX which seems to be a part of the original Cruise Shipe Port Set which was released by @Jason5871over at SimPEG (at least according to Pezzajn that is his set, but on the CBEX PEG link list says it belongs to RebaLynnTS

I knew it wasn't RebaLynnTS but that's the name that was on the PLEX and @pezzajn has an account over at CB Web so I did send him a couple of PMs about it but never got a reply, I also got given a number of files from people after SimPeg went down and they knew I was working on locating all the PLEX files ... so I've got 84 files totalling 2.7mb in size that are meant to be part of the cruise ship port no idea how relevant any of it is as a lot of the files were just copied from people's plugins folders and while I appreciated the thought having the original zip files would have made life easier especially as I'm pretty sure given the name of some of the files I got given were actually beta files.

To be honest I've had brief periods this year were I've been able to work on this and the indexes but the rest of the time RL has taken priority if I do find myself with a bit of spare time I've been playing Banished as its a very relaxing game which is just what you need ... briefly I've got two sick family members who have been in and out of hospital most of this year ... there is light at the end of the tunnel as one is now out of hospital after having had surgery and should make a full recovery, the other one is still in hospital and that's an ongoing situation.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 minutes ago, catty-cb said:

I've got two sick family members

I wish them the best of health and a speedy recovery.

[catty-cb 4,392]

23 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I wish them the best of health and a speedy recovery.

Thanks its appreciated as is the new little buttons on your post, anyway back to the Cruise Ship Port I'm passing over to @Tyberius06 all the files I was given for this project, it also looks like I never downloaded them myself.

On 8/10/2017 at 6:15 AM, Tyberius06 said:

Other thing: in this topic 2nd post @Hellkensaid that he has some non-PLEX/PEG forum attachment files from SimPEG, but at that time Pegasus own files had the priority. Well, I don't think that anybody dealt with the rest of those stuffs so far. I'm curious, what those files could be...

Pretty certain they have to be Paeng's forum attachments here

https://community.simtropolis.com/clubs/26-city-builders-website/cbex?folder=Paengs%2BScrabble%2BBox

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Well, It can be expected a little delay because of RL I had no time to update and upload the stuffs, what I had... Jepp, PAST TENSE...  This morning (but more likely yesterday evening) my flashdrive, where I kept most of my SC4 related stuffs (the digital version of STEX Discs, save copy from the game, all my city back-ups, and everything what I downloaded between 2010-2013 and 2015/, with a lot of no longer available stuffs as well - all original PEG stuff, some japanese and other Far-Eastern related stuffs as well -, all LEX and STEX related stuffs what I downloaded before 2016) wiped out entirely, basicly my flashdrive became an unformated RAW item... I'm a little bit shocked at this moment (O.K. it's not the World or so, but hard to belive that I lost those stuffs what I collected during the years...) Well I tend to get back most of the stuff and encourage everybody (I mean the staffs of the different still available sites) to make that decision to gather all the more or less officially lost contents and start sorting out some legacy solution...

Thanks to @catty-cbI have the Cruise port files (I mean the readmes, pictures etc) so one of the nex two day I try to upload them, and maybe I'm closer to organize the Paeng files from CBEX, but now I have to figure it out what next...

 

- Tyberius

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 minutes ago, Tyberius06 said:

basicly my flashdrive became an unformated RAW item...

Yikes!

My condolences on that major loss.

[rsc204 21,808]

Two things here (sorry to hear about this BTW):

• DO NOT TOUCH THE DRIVE, it's possible with some luck and software, you might be able to restore some of the lost data:
  https://www.lifewire.com/free-data-recovery-software-tools-2622893
  Beware, many such free applications are scams, which make you pay to recover your data. Some offer limited trials, but proper free solutions are out there too. Hence I linked to an article showing some of the options with reviews. I'd take my time finding one, rather than rush in to installing the first one I found.
• I know, after the horse has bolted and all that... Flash drives are a poor way of storing important data. When they fail, they fail hard and your data will have a shelf life on these devices. They are really intended for data transfer, as such I wouldn't want to rely on them for really important stuff. A proper external HDD is a better solution to backups, of course HDDs die, but since external drives aren't used a lot, they are somewhat reliable if stored correctly. Ideally though a backup should be exactly that, a COPY of data elsewhere, used only if you need to recover the data lost on your machine. It's important to make sure your backup is working every so often too, if your data is really important, you'll want redundancy, multiple copies on multiple devices. It gets a bit complex really, but ultimately if your data is worth something to you, a £10-£20 USB stick doesn't cut it.

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Thanks to the advice, sadly I already reformated the card (oh, wrongly I said it was a flashdrive, but actually it's a 64GB Micro SDXC memory card which was put into a USB 3.0 Card reader which was connected to the Laptop VIA an USB HUB, and the HUB was accidently disconnected which caused the problem in the card). I know some of these data recovery programs I used one of them 8-10 years ago, when each of my HDD died. Well the annoying thing, that my plan was that I save all my stuff onto Google Drive or OneDrive, but I wanted to sort out files and a little bit reorganize. Well, now I have the chance to make them organized from the begining... Luckily those patches what you gave me @rsc204 were on a different place, and they are my ingame folders as well.  

Oh I forgot something. During the recollection process I found this page: 

https://www.yuhisa.com/simboard-archives/

Most of Y.H.'s files are there, I thought, his futuristic stuffs and the ATEX, which I don't know what exactly is, has gone by now and they are in the lost stuffs list... But they are still alive!

  Edited August 14, 2017 by Tyberius06  
see in red

[catty-cb 4,392]

On 8/14/2017 at 10:33 PM, Tyberius06 said:

Thanks to the advice, sadly I already reformated the card@rsc204

That's a shame I tried sending you a PM over at CB Web not to re-format the card as it might be possible to save something 

The ATEX stations are on the STEX, from what I can remember of the project the tunnels were eye candy only, but there were attempts at changing that over the years I don't think it ever succeeded.

-catty

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Thanks everyone!

Well I started to redownload the stuffs from LEX and some essential stuffs from STEX aswell, whatever. I "finished" updateing the links. I decided to upload the whole set into one zip, and in the main zip folder there will be all the parts of the set into separate folders with the pictures and readmes, and I make a new readme file which contains all the dependencies in one place. BUT I ran into a little problem. One of the dependencies ponts to a no-more-existing file - Don Miguels CSX Pier Mall. It used to be on the STEX and according to this forum topic over at SC4D this file was part of the first STEX Collection and then it disappeared for good... Or so. A guy did put a google drive link into that forum topic several years ago, but I really don't know in this case what should be the feasible solution. Obviously my vote for the reupload of that file either here or onto the LEX...  

So I'm waiting for the decision and after that I upload the Cruise Port Set, since it's ready!

- Tyberius

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 minutes ago, Tyberius06 said:

Obviously my vote for the reupload of that file either here or onto the LEX...

Add my vote too. Anyone who has the discs could do this.

[Yarahi 1,816]

5 hours ago, Tyberius06 said:

One of the dependencies ponts to a no-more-existing file - Don Miguels CSX Pier Mall.

Not sure how this can be a dependency... looking at the file from the google drive-account linked over @sc4d, it almost exclusively consists of maxis props/buildings (only BSC Textures Vol1, and CSX Mega Props Vol6 are external deps)

Anyways, since DonMiguel has an account her on ST, it should be okay to upload the file under his username in good faith i would think (right @Cyclone Boom)

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Hi!

I know that is just a lot, but there is inbuilt stuff in it, and as I see the building examplar name is the same what Don Miguel used. I don't know why but, the CSP Pier Mall needs that lot.

- Tyberius

[rsc204 21,808]

Yes and no, as I mentioned over on SC4D, it only needs a building exemplar from the file in question. Since it's possible to re-make one that will work and can be freely distributed, that may be a better course of action.

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Hi!

Finally I sorted out Jason5871's Cruise Ship Port Set, so now it's available on the STEX!

Enjoy!

- Tyberius

[Harddisk25 7]

Morning all, I've just rebuilt my plugins folder from scratch to remove any old and conflicting files. After reinstalling PEG RTK3 WaterTreatment Plant v206 i seem to be missing a prop pack. The is no mention of what pack it should be on the download page.

Thanks

Chris

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 hour ago, Harddisk25 said:

The is no mention of what pack it should be on the download page.

Nor does the included ReadMe shed any light on this.

 

I've tracked down 3 of the 4 missing props tho. You need bldgprop_vol1.dat which has the Maxis buildings converted to props for use on lots. While you're at it you might as well grab bldgprop_vol2.dat too. Both of these files are used by many batters and are deemed so essential they are often overlooked when listing dependencies.

Here's how it looks adding the bldgprop_vol1.dat:

 

DataNode still shows it missing exemplar 0x2DDB7010 and I've not been able to locate what that is yet.

Edit: I updated the description for that file with what we do know now and I've reported it to the techy gurus asking what the other dep might be.

[Tyberius06 12,189]

3 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

DataNode still shows it missing exemplar 0x2DDB7010 and I've not been able to locate what that is yet.

1 hour ago, Harddisk25 said:

i seem to be missing a prop pack. The is no mention of what pack it should be on the download page.

Hi!

You were faster @CorinaMarie
I belive you need this too (because atm I don't have the 'building as props' in my plugin folder and the SC4Tool recognize this as dependency...)

But there is a prop what I couldn't find either. It's some kind of cargo props, I thought it's from gizmo's packs, because those were common props back then and they were always forgotten to be mentioned, but no winner... anyway when I made 2 years ago the PEG-CDK3 Seaport revamp (Heretic Seaports now) I ran into many missing props on those lots even if I had all the listed dependencies...

 

[twalsh102 1,601]

That download by @T Wrecks combined bldgprop_vol1.dat and  bldgprop_vol2.dat into one file, as well as fixed some prop name and query issues in the Maxis files (as the name suggests).  One can use either T Wrecks' download or the two Maxis files.  You don't need both.  But it's certainly a good idea for everyone that doesn't have one or the other option to get one of the two.  They are used extensively in older downloads, and as @CorinaMarie mentions, sometimes they were left off dependency lists.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 minutes ago, twalsh102 said:

One can use either T Wrecks' download or the two Maxis files.

We could suggest to @Cyclone Boom it would be nice to mention this on the Maxis Files page. With T's file combining the data and being superior in queried names it would be a logical alternative to the two original files.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

6 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

We could suggest to @Cyclone Boom it would be nice to mention this on the Maxis Files page. With T's file combining the data and being superior in queried names it would be a logical alternative to the two original files.

That's a great idea.

I've added the following info to the page below the bldgprop files:
 

 

What's useful here is anyone who comes searching for the Maxis bldgprops will see this as an option and may wish to give it a try. Instead of a direct download, I figured it's worth linking to the file entry so then the description of the Prop Names Fix is available to read which goes into greater detail.

[Harddisk25 7]

11 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Nor does the included ReadMe shed any light on this.

 

I've tracked down 3 of the 4 missing props tho. You need bldgprop_vol1.dat which has the Maxis buildings converted to props for use on lots. While you're at it you might as well grab bldgprop_vol2.dat too. Both of these files are used by many batters and are deemed so essential they are often overlooked when listing dependencies.

Here's how it looks adding the bldgprop_vol1.dat:

 

DataNode still shows it missing exemplar 0x2DDB7010 and I've not been able to locate what that is yet.

Edit: I updated the description for that file with what we do know now and I've reported it to the techy gurus asking what the other dep might be.

Thanks CorinaMarie

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

On 30/07/2018 at 1:48 AM, CorinaMarie said:

DataNode still shows it missing exemplar 0x2DDB7010 and I've not been able to locate what that is yet.

An update on this:

I've had some time to investigate and managed to narrow down the missing prop to the lot's right side driveway. I loaded it up in the LE and after removing each of them, I found this one which doesn't reveal an exemplar name upon selection, nor a preview of the model itself.

As follows:

Given it's on the driveway, the obvious presumption here is the prop represents a vehicle of some kind. Most likely a truck or tanker since this is a utility structure for water treatment processing. However there seems no other leads to go on, and the one and only preview pic of the plant obscures this with the main building. Even the included image which is of a higher resolution doesn't reveal what the prop might be.

In Reader I noticed there's an IID of 0x2DDB74DF which is distinctly similar to the one we're looking for:

There are 3 things here which make me think these are related.

1. There's just the "010" at the end which differentiates them.
2. This refers to the "TopPipes" of the lot which are a custom prop raised and positioned above the main building (the Maxis high tech).
3. Visually from the top-down view, the size of the pipes are identical to that of the missing prop as shown on the driveway.

Interestingly the missing prop happens to be placed on one of the transit enabled cells. So if it was visible, that would mean any automata driving into the lot would drive straight through it (which may look rather odd). Maybe then it's better without being there in this case.

Perhaps it could've been a prop which was created with the intention for use but later edited out of the exemplar, and as such it doesn't show up in there but is still referenced from the LotConfig details. Or even it somehow didn't save properly.

Either way I'm not sure what else to try here, and feel a process of elimination by attempting various prop packs wouldn't be worthwhile.

Based on the IID being close to the range used by the water pipes prop, I'm inclined to think this was a model created and assigned specially for use on this content item. Overall I think functionality-wise the main thing is the bldgprop file was stated as a dependency. While it would be nice to know about this mystery model, it's surely not something which would detrimentally affect the creation on the whole.

Here's how it looks when plopped in the game:

@Harddisk25

With the lot now visually having zero defects in terms of what could be perceived as missing, maybe this isn't so much a major cause for concern after all. I also tested by removing this prop reference and that prevented the 0x2DDB7010 exemplar from being flagged. With either bldgprop_vol1.dat or the Prop Names Fix installed in an empty Plugins folder, I can confirm there are no further errors detected by the DataNode tool. Should it have been multiple props, this may have been a wider issue and also perhaps easier to track down. With just involving this small unnoticeable one, it seems to not affect the aesthetics or functionality of the lot.

[tariely 4,496]

I am tidying up my stash, consolidating my and my companion's SC4 files. I'm tackling the PEG folder and swimming in my various versions of CDK3, CSK, CDK and OWW1 & 2, Pond, Stream, Channel... because we kept everything as years went by and we lost and redownloaded files and found them again (my companion changed the folder names. ARGH). I think I am doing all right but there is a thing that bothers me : there seem to be two different versions of the Channel kit, one with green water and one with Tahoe water. I do remember having problems with the green water files, wayyyyy back then. Problem is, when I go to PLex-on-The-STEX, there is only the green version, if the pictures are to be believed. My memory is a bit murky. Was there a patch allowing to switch from one kind of water to the other for the CSK2 kit ?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@tariely

Would the green ones be:

PEG CSK2 Varible Width Canals (Download filename: PEG_CSK2_2.05_SU.zip)

  
 

PEG CSK - Channel Stream Kit (Download filename: PEG_CSK_2.05a_SU.zip)

[Tyberius06 12,189]

@tariely

The PPond (PP) Canal Kit totally override all the CSK water textures. Also everything with "PPond" or "PP" refers to the new dark blue-ish water textures.
 

Quote

Now... let's celebrate the rebirth of the CSK2 as the new PPond Canal Kit !!.  The entire collection of variable-width CSK2 Canal Kit lots have been remodeled to use the new PPond style water.  Not only does this allow you to seamlessly transition  PPond rivers and lakes with canals.... but now you can also use any of the CSK2 specialty lots... like the Docks, Bridges, Extender lots and the Small Port... anywhere along a PPond river or lake.

I hope it helps!

- Tyberius

[tariely 4,496]

@CorinaMarie : yes, and there are other lots that go with them (bridges, addons...)

@Tyberius06 : thanks for the precision ! I wasn't sure what overrode the other texture.

Thank you guys. I'll go back to happily munch through my stash.

[rsc204 21,808]

Tyberious has got things right.

In short, most of the PEG water was updated to the newer "Tahoe" type. For the PPonds / Streams, that means using the 206 files, 205 being the older water.

[nathkel 31]

I hope that this is the best forum to write to. Correct me if it isn't...

There was an addon to the PEG Streams, that had little rapids in them (not just calm water), and i believe they had transitions to Tahoe and PEG-Ponds as well. I can't seem to find these old files. Is it included in anything here on the PLEX?

A link would help a lot if you know about it...thanks in advance.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, nathkel said:

I hope that this is the best forum to write to. Correct me if it isn't...

Seems perfectly fine to me, however it might get more views in the Can't find it? ... Ask here! thread so if you'd like it moved over there just let me (or any staff) know and it's just a couple mouse clicks for us to do that.

I did a wee bit of searching and I've not found exactly what you are looking for tho here are a couple that might be of interest in the mean time:

• Ploppable Water Waterfalls
• SPAM Irrigation Canals (has a water fall lot too)