Matias93 Unexpected Mod Workshop

[matias93 7,535]

Southern winter vacations had arrived, and with them, free time to experiment with the game. After years of playing and roaming the site, a simple test on using a sidewalk mod overflowed on the creation of my own sidewalk mod, all thanks to the high tech advancements by Rivit and MGB (a.k.a. rsc204).

Well, in fact it begun a little before: in March I uploaded a fictional map, and surprisingly, people is using it!

So, to take advantage of the momentum already gained, I'm opening this thread, to give support on this couple of humble custom content I've done, but also to try creating something more. By now, I let you with what is already done:

Ciudad del Lago (map)

A 24x24 km square region with lots of hills and natural canals, and plenty of pre-terraformed plains to build

Veredas Santiaguinas (sidewalk mod)

A Santiago de Chile inspired SD sidewalk mod for Maxis networks, lots and NAM networks, made with MGB's Automated Sidewalk Mod. Now it also includes SCILT support!

Basaltic Sands (sand and beach texture mod)

Blackish SD sand textures for basaltic beaches, from Polynesia to Iceland

Basalt Column Tiles (sidewalk mod)

A SD sidewalk mod made of sliced basalt columns, for your hotspot-placed cities <-- working on this

 

Basalt Columns (cliff texture mod)

A SD cliff texture that mimics basalt columns, with different hues for various locations: Iceland, Spain, Yellowstone, New Zeland, Taiwan, etc. <-- researching

 

m93 KOSC SuperSHK+ retexture for Veredas Santiaguinas and Sudden Valley (override of SuperSHK textures)

What it says on the title  

 

  Edited March 26, 2017 by matias93  
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[Mandarin(a) 35]

Yay! Congratulations! &: first comment 

Missed your map when it was released but it definitely looks worth downloading it - I will try it ASAP

[matias93 7,535]

Fresh news and projects!

As my upcoming CJ will be based on a hotspot island in the southern seas, I'm preparing a pack of matching basaltic textures to give more realism and localization to the scenery. As you can see on the first post, I'm talking about a sand texture, a sidewalk mod and a cliff texture.

I'm currently creating the sand and beach texture, while searching and preparing textures for the sidewalk mod and considering ways to avoid strange distortions when stretching an hexagonal grid over a cliff.

About the beach texture, I have an issue though: When opening the existent beach texture, the image looks stretched, like to a 200%. Do I have to stretch the new texture in the same way to match ingame proportions?

  Edited July 23, 2016 by matias93  
typos, it seems I'll never get rid of them

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

That will be great!

I don't know much about modding, I hope someone can help you there.

[matias93 7,535]

So here are the inmediate results: the sand texture looks great and not stretched on the beaches, so there's a plus; but there are two problems.

In first place, the sand colour on the beaches is darker than in the terrain, and I supose that's due to the way the game interpretates colours, the same happened with the sidewalks as read by Xannepan's Quais de Seine.

In second place, a surely much more silly error is that the mips I did just covered the two closer zoom levels (5 and 6, yes?) on the beaches' textures, with maxis textures on the rest. I'm guessing this is caused by a bad mips selection when decoding the DAT file. I'll try again looking harder on that, but I'm more lost with the colour issue. May one of you know how much I have to change that for an adequate match? Otherwise, trial and error is the way to go.

The following images show both the results and the problems:

Thanks for reading and helping!

[rsc204 21,808]

If you missed it, @vortext made an update that colour matches the Quays better, find that here.

Generally speaking there are two main colour profiles for SC4 Content. Some uses make the textures appear lighter, so you must darken them to match (generally S3D model-based textures). Others make them darker, so you must lighten them. It all depends on your source textures and what you are using them for.

GoFSH has an option "Adjust Color" that will auto-adjust textures to be darker or lighter, so you don't have to work it out. It can apply this to a entire folder or just a single texture. When you made the sidewalk mod, you may not have noticed, but GoFSH was doing this where required for you on the fly. For a texture used in the Lot Editor that was made for models, like this beach texture, you probably need to just use "lighter" here.

However, sometimes getting the colour you want is not so simple, it just requires adjustments in a photo editor, because you don't always get what you see in an image editor in-game.

[matias93 7,535]

Well, it seems trial and error is the safest option... I'll go for darkening sand textures with GoFSH nonetheless, that program is simply wonderful!

In the same topic, I tried to install this textures along the Lowkee's Appalachian terrain mod, which is HD: the result is that the SD terrain textures get overstretched, both sand and (PEG's) cliff. I assume the HD controller is just trying to take the available textures and filling 1024x1024 squares with them; this was verified with a silly experiment to create an SD version of the appalachian textures: then they all got overstretched.

I'll have to explore more detailledly how terrain mods work (Lowkee and Heblem tutorials will be very handy), but it is 4:20 AM here, and that can wait...  Also, it will keep the surprise about vortext's update, thanks @rsc204!

[rivit 3,391]

When making terrain/water textures the average value of the source texture is quite important. If its too dark as the mips are made (the lower scales) it just gets darker, the opposite if its too bright to start with. For SC4 terrain/water textures its best if Brightness>=128 or 0.5 and average Sat <=128 or 0.5.

In nature  - everything becomes fainter at further distance because of reflected light and light extinction through air so your textures should get lighter (and ideally slightly bluer) as you zoom out. This is far less obvious with land terrain but here too saturation (i.e. purity of colour) declines as you zoom out. This is really obvious when visibility isn't perfect.

Also in GoFSH there are three other things to take account of

1) GoFSH was designed with 256x256 terrain/sea textures in mind - the HD controllers map the textures differently over the terrain - their textures may be up to1024x1024px.

2) the numbering of these textures is different from most others - so you may need to renumber them manually, and use reader to make the mod.

3) if using the terrain option the source textures are doubled (2x2 tiled) then scaled back to size as a cascade from zoom 4 to zoom 0. This makes tiling artefacts show up very quickly - before making up your mips make sure your original texture tiles neatly - repeats or edge effects will surely be exaggerated during the tile/scale process.

You can review the mips by clicking in the FSH display window, this pops up a window with the other 4 mips.

Another thing that may happen:

If you use Photoshop to make your source images or your mips for terrain/sea these beware that rescaling images can leave an edge effect  - either scaling up or down. This can show as a tiling artefact in the game. Always check that you cant see this by half rotating the image both horizontally and vertically (Filter/Other/Offset) and if necessary repair it. 

[matias93 7,535]

Basaltic Sands is uploaded

Check it here!

 

[matias93 7,535]

Finally, I manage to make the basaltic sidewalk mod... or at least a beta test of it. Please ignore the ugly tiling (I have to find a way to make irregular polygons to tile seamlessly, or to hide the seams better, at least), and the super dark grass colour (miscalculation when editing the texture, easy to fix). Also, I know the white GLR textures look much more absurd on this context, but I don't trust my poor photoshopping skills, and to remake the masks on the Automated Sidewalk Mod would require them. Same thing with the Quais de Seine and my non-existent batting abilities.

In general, what I ask you to feedback is about the 'feel' of a very dark sidewalk (maybe too dark? I think basalt is usually on the same range of colours as asphalt), and if you have ideas about how to wealthify those textures; I thought on concrete and dirt patches on low wealth, due to lazy repairings, but for high wealth I have no idea, maybe patterned tonalities, or more uniform hexagons?

[Adrianor 628]

I like this concept but I do agree that it looks a bit too dark. A lot of times in SC4, we have to deviate from reality so that it looks better in game, as you may know. 

As to how to wealthify the sidewalks, it would indeed be a good idea to add patterns, something like the picture below. Also, note how you can see grass or weed growing between the cobblestones. Maybe you can try to emulate this for the low wealth version to show lack of maintenance? But I don't know if this might too detailed for SC4, I'd have to see how it looks in game. 

 

[matias93 7,535]

Those are very good ideas! I'll try with the patterns (that's not hard) and the weeds (that seems harder, considering the scale, because on farther zoom levels colours could end mixed).

About the sidewalk colour issue, I think I'll going to need to use an external screen to make the textures, because my laptop has a heavy anti reflexive coating and everything looks much less contrasted. Checking my own images (and your thread photos too) on the shiny screen of my dad's laptop, everything kind of flourished. For future reference, take my comments about colour as somewhat erroneous.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

One more thing you should consider is the so-called scale effect known from model building (and, let's face it, BATting and texturing is pretty much like virtual model building). Often when you paint a small-scale model in exactly the colour that its real-life counterpart had, you'll find the final result looking off somehow. But why? Well, it's because the model appears in a size that's equivalent to looking at the car/ship/plane/train/house from several hundred metres away. And when you look at an object from that far away, the particles in the air will make the colours fade a little. What's bright dark red from up close may become a pale, unsaturated medium red from a large distance.

If you fail to recreate this in a model, the brain picks up mixed signals from the eye: It knows the real Titanic (to name but one example) was huge, but this one (the model) is tiny, so it must be far away, hence its colours should appear somewhat vague/bleached out/unsaturated. Yet here the colours are as bright and vivid as if we were standing right in front of the ship, but that can't be because it's so tiny...  

In this way, failing to compensate for the scale effect takes away from the overall realism of the model and makes it appear more like a toy.

Now back to Simcity: We're looking at the city from pretty far above, so colours should be somewhat undersaturated and brightened up, as if a light greyish veil was applied over them. Therefore, you can safely brighten that basalt. This is actually the reason why I'm not happy with the default road textures, either: They're far too black. With proper consideration of the scale effect, they'd probably end up as a darkish grey/bleached anthracite.

[rsc204 21,808]

As usual, some sound advice there T Wrecks. Just to add that another factor when modelling or making content for a videogame, is that some compensation is usually required to account for the way the game renders objects. In the case of SC4, some colours, however real, will simply never look right in a game. I'd try to isolate all the really dark black parts and remove/replace them with something lighter. Thereafter, you should be able to come up with something with only a marginal amount of tweaking that works well. In my many attempts to make a custom sidewalk mod, based on the concrete/asphalt pavements commonly found in Europe. Every dark texture I used never felt right. It wasn't until I realised this and started making much lighter ones that I started to get results I was happy with.

[peperodriguez2710 138]

Good job, specially with that dark sand, it looks awesome! I've tried your Veredas Santiaguinas streetwalks and I have to say they look quite good, but could you make a version without the coloured tiles? (Or explain me how to make it by myself) The slabs look almost identical to my hometown's, and without the coloured parts they would be almost equal!

Best regards form Spain and keep it up! 

[rsc204 21,808]

Create your sidewalk textures, usually you will want 3 for $, $$ and $$$ wealth.

To turn that (or any existing textures you can find/scrounge) into a complete sidewalk mod, do what @matias93 did. Which is to use my Automated Sidewalk Mod - a link to which is in my signature.

[matias93 7,535]

Gracias por tu mensaje!

In fact, the process is very simple and is automated (as I said on the readme, the manual process would have take me years to learn and do). 

About the textures, they are based on an open source image, and this ones are the PSD files, you can use photoshop, paint.net or any other image editor with layer compatibility to modify them. As the grime level and the coloured tiles are just a layer, you can change or deactivate them easily.

Please send us images of your results!

[peperodriguez2710 138]

On 1/11/2016 at 10:17 PM, rsc204 said:

Create your sidewalk textures, usually you will want 3 for $, $$ and $$$ wealth.

To turn that (or any existing textures you can find/scrounge) into a complete sidewalk mod, do what @matias93 did. Which is to use my Automated Sidewalk Mod - a link to which is in my signature.

 

On 1/11/2016 at 10:23 PM, matias93 said:

Gracias por tu mensaje!

In fact, the process is very simple and is automated (as I said on the readme, the manual process would have take me years to learn and do). 

About the textures, they are based on an open source image, and this ones are the PSD files, you can use photoshop, paint.net or any other image editor with layer compatibility to modify them. As the grime level and the coloured tiles are just a layer, you can change or deactivate them easily.

Please send us images of your results!

Thanks a lot! I'll show you the results as soon as I can!

[peperodriguez2710 138]

Hi.

After some trial and error (and a fresh new install of NAM -don't know why it disappeared from my menus-), I finally managed to get the sidewalk mod working! (at least partially)

The problem is- it only shows up in NAM puzzle pieces, but not in regular roads, streets, avenues, sam and nwm; which still show maxis default ones. They didn't changed in lots, too. Well, at least the custom textures look as I wanted  

 

 

What I'm doing wrong? I'm quite clumsy with this, so I'm pretty sure it's because one stupid and obvious reason.

I have the files that were made from the GoFSH both into a folder called "P - Sidewalk NAM" both in the "z___MGB Mods" (as the installation readme told me to do) and into a subfolder inside "z___NAM" folder, with zz in its name to be loaded after the NAM default textures (because the prior method didn't worked, so I tweaked a bit until I managed the textures to show up in that puzzle pieces).

I also don't have any separate .dat file as other sidewalk mods (simply because I don't know how to turn .bmp files to .dat), and I believe it could be the problem.

Sorry for diverting the thread, I will post into the Automated Sidewalk Mod support thread if the problem persists.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[rsc204 21,808]

I'm sure Matias doesn't mind it being discussed here (if I'm wrong, I can ask a moderator to move these posts).

Basically the SWN package simply doesn't include the actual sidewalk mod. It takes the sidewalk mod you have, then uses those textures to add it to the NAM pieces. There is an additional package on the STEX that will:

By default, the automated version again only makes new sidewalk versions of Maxis Lot and Overlay textures. But the Sidewalk can be created too, you need to modify the included script. Whenever the character ' is placed at the beginning of a line, it tells GoFSH to ignore this line. Just remove them from the sidewalk parts and it will create the actual sidewalk mod for you with the correct IDs. For full instructions, open the included file "BuildSidewalkMod.txt", it will tell you what steps to take.

It's also worth noting that my mod supports PEG's rail mod (which you show in the screenshot). Be careful to follow the included Readme file for SWN, after GoFSH is finished, you won't need all the files it generates. The readme tells you what you should remove.

[matias93 7,535]

9 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

 

I'm sure Matias doesn't mind it being discussed here (if I'm wrong, I can ask a moderator to move these posts).

 

There is absolutely no problem; what's more, I'm glad you can make this thread to look a little bit less abandoned (university assignements are eating me alive )

46 minutes ago, peperodriguez2710 said:

The problem is- it only shows up in NAM puzzle pieces, but not in regular roads, streets, avenues, sam and nwm; which still show maxis default ones. They didn't changed in lots, too. Well, at least the custom textures look as I wanted  

I must say, this counts heavily as a déjà vu... maybe it would be a good idea to left uncommented the sidewalk creating lines on the definitive version of the script, I'm sure most people would want to create a full custom sidewalk instead of a NAM only one.

[rsc204 21,808]

26 minutes ago, matias93 said:

I must say, this counts heavily as a déjà vu... maybe it would be a good idea to left uncommented the sidewalk creating lines on the definitive version of the script, I'm sure most people would want to create a full custom sidewalk instead of a NAM only one.

The MTRDK was never part of the sidewalk mod, it was actually something entirely different before the automated version came about. It better linked in with an old tutorial from SimPeg, but I had planned to integrate it into the SWN mod eventually. Since the full publc release still hasn't happened, it's just taking longer than expected to unify things together. But yes, I think you are right it's the best place for it.

However, I don't know if I would set it on by default. I will certainly better document it in the readme though. My rationale is simply that I think more users will take an existing sidewalk mod to create their SWN, than those making their own sidewalks. In the case of something like one of Gobias' HD sidewalk mods, if I left it on and the files from the generated mod were inside it's folder, it could inadvertently override the HD textures with SD textures for example.

[peperodriguez2710 138]

Now I finally got all sidewalks working! Loads of thanks! 

Spoiler

 

 

I've seen some of the road curves aren't covered or aligned entirely, though it isn't very important afterall. I don't know if it's NAM 35's or the sidewalk mod's fault, but I'll show you some pictures in case they're useful to further improvements.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

By the way, rsc/MGB, I'm also using your non-grass sidewalks mod (very good job, actually), and I have a doubt: as I had to create quickly a test city (My only region with developed cities got deleted) and I didn't had the chance of seeing the look of the avenues in different wealths; does the mod also replace grass in the avenue medians with sidewalks?

I sincerely thank you another time for your patience and helpful advices; to MGB, for developing those awesome tools and helping me another time (you are always full of useful advice to all the issues I ask help for); and to Matías, for helping me a lot too and letting me divert your own thread with my doubts and questions. By the way, good luck with the university, ¡Ánimo, compañero! 

Have a nice day!

[rsc204 21,808]

1 hour ago, peperodriguez2710 said:

I've seen some of the road curves aren't covered or aligned entirely, though it isn't very important afterall. I don't know if it's NAM 35's or the sidewalk mod's fault, but I'll show you some pictures in case they're useful to further improvements.

Nothing in NAM35 to my knowledge requires updates to the sidewalks. Some of the new NWM transitions will need to be added for NGN/TGN users though. My mod doesn't cover the legacy puzzle pieces, simply because this mod will do that for you, so I recommend you install it:

1 hour ago, peperodriguez2710 said:

I didn't had the chance of seeing the look of the avenues in different wealths; does the mod also replace grass in the avenue medians with sidewalks?

That will be NGN I think (No Grass NAM). Indeed it does replace the grass in the medians too.

1 hour ago, peperodriguez2710 said:

I sincerely thank you another time for your patience and helpful advices; to MGB, for developing those awesome tools and helping me another time

Glad my work is useful. I really wanted unified sidewalks when I started playing with the NAM, so I made one. But along the way I was able to make something that solved the problem once and for all. Just as @matias93 did, if you're interested, you are free to release the SWN mod for others to use.

[matias93 7,535]

Small but useful update to the Veredas:

Now they support SCILT textures, the ones used on Manuel-ito fantastic Maxis Renewal relots, and of course, on the hundreds of amazing CP's lots.

Wait for more updates on this almost abandoned projects soon!

[matias93 7,535]

Back again, postergating work on the promised texture mods again, this time for something you would use, although.

For a couple of days I've been experimenting with ways to disminish loading times on SC4, and after some errors (that were gladly overcomed by very convenient backups) I've developed a script that allows SC4 plugins to be preferently located into the hard disk, thus easing the computer task to find them when loading the game, or changing between different views in-game. This method combines the advantages of DATpacking, backuping and defragmenting the plugins folder, automatizing some of those tasks.

1. The rationale within

In hard disks (but not on SSDs) that are formatted in NTFS (or both FAT and FAT32) files are located physically on the disk surface, in a manner that makes some positions easier and faster to reach when looking for files, but when files are written to the disk, this usually happens in a disordered fashion, something that is unefficient when reading files non-aleatoriely. Also, when formatting, disk space is distributed in clusters of fixed size, which can be completely filled if files are big enough, but that end half-empty with small files, because clusters cannot be easily shared by different files. 

Defragmentation software uses this principles to rearrange files as closely possible to the 'beggining' of the disk, thus disminishing loading times; but just defragmenting the disk will order all files at the beggining of the disk, without an specifical priority, so files that are rarely used can end closer to the beggining than files we use in a daily basis. Luckily, some defrafmenting software allows to configure critera to send files to the opposite end of the disk, where we would like scarcely used files (like backups, downloaded movies or old familiar photos) to be stored, freeing the most accessible clusters to files we want to use frequently.

2. How this works <-- Jump here to avoid the unnecessary wall of text

This method uses several software tools to manage our plugins files with the objective of moving the DAT files we want SC4 to read to the beggining of the disk, and to allocate them in an orderly way. For that, we need to install:

• the SC4 DATPacker to consolidate small plugins files to big but game-readable DAT files
• the Download and Installation Catalogue (DIC or DL Catalogue) that automates tasks of plugins folder management and creates a handy backup of our plugins
• a command-line compatible compressor software --in this case Seven Zip-- that can create big backup files instead of folders with thousands of small files
• and a programmable defragmentation software --I'm using Defraggler-- to move the files physically and arrange them in the desired manner.

The key part of the preparation process is the instalation of the DL-Catalogue: on its first use it will create a new directory, SC4 Stuff, aside our SimCity 4 folder. In that new directory we'll find two folders to use: Backups, where we'll store our big 7z files, and Has Been Compressed, where the Catalogue stores a non-DATpacked copy of the DATpacked plugins. As the rationale goes, both of those kinds of files are scarcely used and we want to have them moved to the end of the hard disk.

The script works mainly archiving and compressing the Have Been Compressed folder (which files aren't, in fact, compressed) to a handy .7z file kept on Backup folder. Why? Because to defragmentate a disk with several gigabytes of small files is much more slow and proccessor-loading than to move a huge file once. This is all about easing the defragmentation process.

On the other side, the files that will be read by the game also need to be distributed in a purposeful fashion: the DATpacking is only as good as the folder ordering we feed it. Luckily, the Catalogue also includes a tool (Developer Menu -> Analysis Tool) to gauge and recommend the most efficient size and number of folders to DATpack. As a rule of thumb, folders of 250 Mb are the most efficent to read. Several strategies to distribute plugins in folders exist, and it depends on your use the way you should order them; my strategy is to use Author folders (following the accustomed ordering method of most existent installers), but to distribute them in alphabetic folders (A, B, BSC, C, C2, D, E-F, etc.) and merging or splitting them according to their size. You should end with something between 10 and 30 DATpacked files corresponding to your folder arrangement, and those are the files we want to put at the beggining of the disk.

3. The script and how to use it

What carries us to the script implementation; the code is created around the idea of having an archived Has Been Compressed folder most of the time, but to make it accessible when using the DL Catalogue, to be capable of modifying our plugins easily. For that reason, the script is a launcher of the DL Catalogue (akin to the SC4 Launcher or the batch files we use to avoid multithreading). Let's see the code:

::Script for improving SC4 files defragmentation 0.2 beta::
::(cc)2016. matias93. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 international.
::please post improvements on http://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/70802-matias93-unexpected-mod-workshop/

:: checks if there exists a backup for Has Been Compressed
IF EXIST "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Backups\hasbeencompressed-current.7z" (
Echo Compressed backup found, running...
:: checks if the plugins folder is datpacked
IF EXIST "D:\docs\Documentos\SimCity 4\Plugins\Plugins_Compressed\A.dat" (
	:: descompresses the previously created backup file and overwrites the compressed plugins folder
	7z x -y "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Backups\hasbeencompressed-current.7z" -o"D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Has Been Compressed\"
	:: warns the user about the swapping
	Echo The automated backup of Has Been Compressed is running. Do not close DL-Catalogue until swapping back the folders.
	:: runs DL catalogue
	"C:\Program Files\eu-Contractor\DL Catalogue.exe"
	:: closes the catalogue and checks if plugins was effectively swapped
		IF EXIST "D:\docs\Documentos\SimCity 4\Plugins\Plugins_Compressed\A.dat" (
		:: compresses the has been compressed folder to an existent sevenzip archive in backups folder, updating the archiver
        :: the configuration is to grab all files in the folder, 
        :: erase files that were erased in the folder (q0), 
        :: store new files (r2), 
        :: keep files that are newer on the archiver (x1), 
        :: replace files that are newer in the folder (y2),
		::ignore identical files (z1)
        :: and overwrite in the archiver files that have the same name and time-stamp, regardless of size.
		7z u -t7z "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Backups\hasbeencompressed-current.7z"  -up1q0r2x1y2z1w2 -mx0 "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Has Been Compressed\*"
		:: deletes has been compressed folder
		rmdir /s /q "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Has Been Compressed"
		:: and creates a new, empty folder with the same name
		mkdir "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Has Been Compressed"
		Echo The folder Has Been Compressed successfully backuped and deleted. It is possible to defragmentate. Don't forget to use this batch to edit Plugins folder.
		) ELSE (
		:: warns the user if the folders weren't swapped after the present catalogue use
		Echo Plugins folder ISN'T datpacked. Run DL-Catalogue from start menu to swap folders and avoid file loss.
	)
	) ELSE (
	:: warns the user if the folders weren't swapped on a past catalogue use
	Echo Plugins folder ISN'T datpacked. Run DL-Catalogue from start menu to swap folders and avoid file loss.
) ELSE (
:: creates a 7z archiver with Has Been Compressed
Echo Creating required 7z archiver. Please run this script again once finished.
7z a -t7z "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Backups\hasbeencompressed-current.7z" "D:\docs\Documentos\SC4 Stuff\Has Been Compressed\*.*"
)

Please note that the code avobe is configurated for an specific disk and folder arrangement that surely won't match yours (I'm pretty sure there are environment variables to avoid this, but I don't know them). Before using the script you MUST check the code points to the correct folders.

I was very verbose in the code to help further changes to be done easily. This text should be pasted on the notepad and saved as a batch file (change file type to 'all' and add a .bat extension to the file name). I've also attached the batch file, but most browsers will (justifiedly) distrust of it, batch files are very dangerous if one doesn't know what they do.

4. Configure Defraggler

With the previous steps, you will have all the files already shaped in the correct way to use defragmenting software, but as I said previously, it won't be useful if the defragmentator won't know what to do. We need to give it precise instructions:

In Defraggler, go to Settings Menu --> Options ---> Defrag tab and literally check all the boxes there, then set the minimum file size to 300 Mb. This will make the software to send all files of the selected extensions to the end of the disk. You will like to do this in a disk or partition that is different to the one your Operating System works, otherwise all your computer will lag.

Then, add executable files to the list by clicking Add, naming the category and introducing the extensions: *.exe | *.msi

After that, change to the Files/Folders tab (on the lower tab stack!) and add all the directories that contain files you use infrequently; for me, they are this ones:

In this step, it is MANDATORY to include the SC4 Stuff folder that the DL Catalogue created, thus assuring that the backup the script creates is sent to the end of the disk.

5. Warnings

Several things to keep in mind:

1. Make a backup of your non-DATpacked Plugins folder before beggining, in case something goes wrong. I won't take responsability for your lost files if you don't make a backup; in fact, I had to use it three times because of errors on previous script versions.
2. Follow the script instructions. Never close the script and always remember swapping back the folders in the DL Catalogue to avoid file corruption, else you'll need to use the aforementioned backup, and it won't be always up-to-date.
3. Again, check that the script folders match your system folders or it won't find them by itself.
4. Be patient. The full optimization process is REALLY SLOW the first time. Like all-night compressing and defragmenting slow. Planify to do it, specially if you have a big Plugins folder. This time will be greatly reduced once the backup files are done and the files are located in the correct extremes of the disk.

***

Wow, that was a long post! Well, let's see if you like this little invention or you find something that can be improved on it; I'll be glad to read your feedback. Also, what do you think on share this batch on the STEX? It is too much a niche product or too hard to use, or it would be useful for many players?

 

respaldoautomatico.bat

  Edited December 9, 2016 by matias93  
small errors in the script

[matias93 7,535]

A complementary override SuperSHK+ texture package for Veredas Santiaguinas and Sudden Valley is uploaded! Get it here:

As I said on the readme, I'll be doing alternate versions for other terrain mods and the upcoming sidewalk mod on demand, so I'm waiting for your comments...

[rsc204 21,808]

Great to see you keeping your sidewalk up to date with these additions. That's precisely what I hoped for when making the main sidewalk mod public. Of course everyone is free to create their personal mods, but most users prefer ready-to-use mods instead. Keep up the good work .

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

On 12/8/2016 at 2:19 PM, matias93 said:

(I'm pretty sure there are environment variables to avoid this, but I don't know them).

It's good to see someone writing scripts.

I worked on something similar for the backup, but it turned out everyone was scared to death of batch files and so it went nowhere. (CoriBacks.Bat - A Little Tool) You might find the naming by date and time useful for consecutive backups tho there is a slight bug with the leading 0 for time. @RandyE gave me a link to a workaround, but I didn't bother to continue due to lack of interest. If any of it's useful, feel free to adapt any of it to your project. And if none is helpful, that's fine too.

[matias93 7,535]

4 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

It's good to see someone writing scripts.

I worked on something similar for the backup, but it turned out everyone was scared to death of batch files and so it went nowhere. (CoriBacks.Bat - A Little Tool) You might find the naming by date and time useful for consecutive backups tho there is a slight bug with the leading 0 for time. @RandyE gave me a link to a workaround, but I didn't bother to continue due to lack of interest. If any of it's useful, feel free to adapt any of it to your project. And if none is helpful, that's fine too.

Sorry for not answering before :/

It's a great idea to use dates for the backups, and if I remember well, the seven zip scripting has an option to do so, but I've made an habit of doing it regularly. As I don't want a copy of my region to be created each time I open the game, I use the 'current' version for the script and, on a monthly basis, change the name of the 'current' file to the day's date.

It's more of a personal preference in this case, but I'll keep your code close, in case something else can use it