Game framework compatible DLL loading (and other modding discoveries)

[TogaMasterJohn 705]

2 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Any idea where it might be in that massive thread? I made it to about page 34 reading backwards, found a few tricks.

The tool itself? I'll have to ping @Cyclone Boom. We were in a convo together (I had asked Cori and CB about the river tool) and if I remember correctly, all of the messages and files were going to be copied into an actual topic, but it never came to be.

I personally don't see any harm in publishing it, as it may lead to more discoveries!   (not to mention, EffectDir could *really* use more documentation in general - the more knowledge of it, the better!)

49 minutes ago, asasnat said:

I didn't think it was the originally intended river tool, because I couldn't bridge over it (although that's probably just a limitation of having to spawn the effect in manually by using cheats or scripting)

It might be possible to do that with some additional tweaking to the tool. Or, if it can't be done that way, there might be a workaround.

49 minutes ago, asasnat said:

EDIT: Another thing. Unused parameters in the terrain tuning INI file suggest that water streams would pick up sediment from the ground, turning a different color. As it goes further downstream, it would deposit it back into the ground, leading to slow, gradual, hydraulic erosion. I wonder if this would work with the stream effect?

That is quite intriguing! 

[asasnat 216]

On 3.07.2023 at 11:18 PM, asasnat said:

EDIT: Another thing. Unused parameters in the terrain tuning INI file suggest that water streams would pick up sediment from the ground, turning a different color. As it goes further downstream, it would deposit it back into the ground, leading to slow, gradual, hydraulic erosion. I wonder if this would work with the stream effect?

I hope this is not considered necroing but I don't think it would've worked that way. The stream effect can "jump" into the air if it goes down a slope that is too steep. We all know Maxis developers were hardcore when designing SC4, but I don't think even they would be hardcore enough to take jumping rivers/streams into account for the hydrology/erosion simulators. This may sound silly, and admittedly I don't have much to prove this, but I think for the water/stream simulation they were going for something more akin to the lava spewed out by the volcano disaster, which flows and pools in a realistic manner (at least until the disaster ends and the lava magically vanishes; realism is my passion).

^{Features like these, and the possibility that we might never get to see them work in the way Maxis envisioned, make me want to create my own city builder, implementing all such features. Maybe some day...}

  Edited December 30, 2023 by asasnat  
oops

[Propfam 2,288]

On 12/30/2023 at 9:32 AM, asasnat said:

I hope this is not considered necroing but I don't think it would've worked that way. The stream effect can "jump" into the air if it goes down a slope that is too steep. We all know Maxis developers were hardcore when designing SC4, but I don't think even they would be hardcore enough to take jumping rivers/streams into account for the hydrology/erosion simulators. This may sound silly, and admittedly I don't have much to prove this, but I think for the water/stream simulation they were going for something more akin to the lava spewed out by the volcano disaster, which flows and pools in a realistic manner (at least until the disaster ends and the lava magically vanishes; realism is my passion).

^{Features like these, and the possibility that we might never get to see them work in the way Maxis envisioned, make me want to create my own city builder, implementing all such features. Maybe some day...}

Necroing again, but yeah, I agree with you. Hydrology was pretty hard to simulate at the time. So, Maxis wouldn't probably bother much with them. And speaking of city builder, go ahead. We're waiting for that OpenSC4.