Texture Automation

[rsc204 21,804]

(Mod note): Just in the process of setting everything up. It may take a while, for now I'm keeping this thread locked.

Go-FSH Texture Automation

This thread will serve as a home for discussion of Texture Automation for SC4.

What is texture automation and why would I want to use such a thing?

In the past, if you wanted to customise in-game textures, it meant a lot of arduous work, finding, extracting, converting, editing and then re-packaging textures. But recently GoFSH has been developed to automate many common tasks, which is good news not just for modders, but for regular folks too.

It is now possible for creators to release customisable texture mods, users just need a copy of a working repository and GoFSH will do almost all of the work for you.

How does this work in principle?, for example, say you'd like to see a custom sidewalks on those NAM textures which otherwise won't show them. That's exactly what my SWN mod was designed for, however rather than being limited to the handful of sidewalk variants I've released, you can use the same process to make a custom version. You simply download the SWN repository, install the GoFSH application (STEX Download here) and use them to create your desired sidewalk mod.

Below are some basic tutorials to get you up and running. I hope to add a list of available repositories (with links). I'll also be adding some of the more complicated stuff in due course.

[rsc204 21,804]

Setting up GoFSH to use your custom textures

Here is a brief guide, intended to show you how to find and extract your sidewalk textures, so you can use them with GoFSH auto-generation. The concepts explained here will work for any textures you want to make use of, although I will concentrate on sidewalks specifically. For those who prefer, you can find a video-guide (YouTube) here instead.

1. A quick note about TGI's (ID's/IID's)

The only really technical part of this tutorial concerns TGIs, that's Type, Group and Instance numbers, which for SC4 are in Hexadecimal. Simply think of this three groups of eight digits as a telephone number. The game asks for a texture to be displayed and "calls" the number for the texture it wants.

Think of the Type, Group and Instance parts as the International Dialling Code, Area Code and Local Number parts of a telephone number.

So an example TGI (phone number) might then be:      0123 4567, 3456 789A, 789A BCDE.

The good news however, is that you don't need to understand them, we just need to know which numbers we need and that information is here for you.

2. Finding your Sidewalk Textures

Assuming you are using a custom sidewalk, you will have installed at least one DAT file, which contains the textures needed to work with GoFSH. Either locate the files that came with your sidewalk mod, otherwise take a copy of them from the original download, then place them somewhere you can easily find later. For example a folder named TEMP on your desktop, would be fine.

 

Now let's open the GoFSH application, following these steps:

1. From the main interface click on FSHxDAT, bringing up a new windows.
2. Here, click the button Load .dat.
3. Navigate to the location of your sidewalk mod files.

If you have multiple DATs you may need to check through them, until you find the specific textures we require.

We are looking for textures with the Group and Instance ID's as shown here:

First, you should select the option "Tex" under View. This will ensure you can see the textures properly.

 

Make sure under Subset(s) that the option "Other" is ticked, to ensure the textures we're looking for will appear. In the above example, a forth texture, 1ABE787D-08400000 also exists which we do not need. Therefore remove the tick in the selection (Sel) column (left), to exclude this texture from being saved (exported). DAT files can contain many textures, but we only need the three which are circled in blue in the above screenshot. So if your files show any others, make sure they are also unticked before proceeding.

 

Under Action, if you select "Save Largest", this will only save the full size version of the texture. The smaller versions, called MipMaps are required for SC4 to display the different zoom levels. These are not needed, so you should make sure "Save Largest" is selected.

 

Once everything is as directed, click on "Save .fsh", at which point you will be asked where to save these files. Once again you could place them into the TEMP folder from my earlier example. Once you've decided where to put them, click "Save".

 

Now if you look in your TEMP folder, there are a number of FSH files (SC4 Textures). We only need textures that end with the number 4 (the largest ones). so if you have any ending in 0-3, now's the time to delete them. You should be left with only 3 FSH files as follows:

• 7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08100004.FSH
• 7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08200004.FSH
• 7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08300004.FSH

Back in GoFSH, we can now close the FSHxDAT window and return to the main interface. This screen comprises of three 'windows', each of which has a button like this . In the bottom right of these 'windows' click . Find the first FSH texture, 7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08100004.FSH and select it. Then click on "Open". You should now see this texture (your custom sidewalk), appear in the left window. If for some reason, this is not the correct sidewalk, it probably means you've got more than one sidewalk mod. You simply need to repeat this section, but using the correct sidewalk files.

 

Once your sidewalk texture is correctly displayed we can begin, do the following:

1. Under Batch Mode, ensure that "Decode" is selected.
2. Click on "GoFSH" in the bottom right. (Essentially this means start).

The screen may flash, but more importantly you should notice that the folder containing the .FSH files, now has 6 new .BMP files too. FSH is the format used by SC4 for textures, GoFSH can only work with Bitmaps (.BMP) though, hence we needed to convert these textures.

3. Rename Textures

We no longer need the original FSH files, nor those files ending in -A0.bmp, so before continuing please move/delete them. You should be left with three files (all ending in -C0.bmp), rename them as follows:
 

7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08100004-C0.bmp	Paving10C.bmp
7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08200004-C0.bmp	Paving20C.bmp
7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08300004-C0.bmp	Paving30C.bmp

 

4. Create a Custom GoFSH Texture Set

 

A GoFSH custom texture set, is simply a collection of either sidewalk, grass or dirt textures. By default the application comes with a set of Maxis textures. In order to generate new textures with your custom sidewalks (and grass/dirt where desired), we must create a new custom set. The default location of these texture sets is:

C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\GoFSH\Textures\

 

However, Windows hides these folders from users, so it could be easier to get to them. Never mind though, here's a handy tip for quickly opening/locating this folder:

 

1. Click START and select the RUN option from the Start Menu.
   (alternately press Windows Key and R together).
2. Type %appdata% into the window that appears and click OK
   (see below).
   
3. This should bring up your AppData folder automatically.
4. Now simply navigate to \Roaming\GoFSH\Textures
   as you normally would.

 

Here you should find a folder named MAXIS, which contains the default Maxis game textures. In addition to some other files we don't need to worry about. Right mouse click on the MAXIS folder, then select "Copy", then right mouse click an empty space and select "Paste". A new folder named MAXIS - Copy should be created, simply rename this folder to reflect what it will contain. For example CUSTOM would be fine for now.

 

 

Now find the three Paving (sidewalk) textures that we previously extracted in Steps 2 & 3. Move or Copy them into the folder you just renamed. When you do, Windows will prompt you about overwriting the existing textures. You should click Accept/OK/Stop Nagging Me/You're Not my Mum. Basically whichever text will go ahead and overwrite them.

 

Now you have a custom set of Paving (sidewalk) textures, which can be used by GoFSH when generating new custom game textures.

 

5. Adding Optional Grass and Dirt Textures

 

For the purposes of this tutorial, I will briefly cover some details to help you Add custom Grass/Dirt (or create new sets for them), in addition to sidewalks. A texture set could contain all three Grass, Paving and Dirt textures, like the default Maxis set does. However, for added flexibility you can independently select a Grass and Paving set when using GoFSH. If like most users, you just use one set of Sidewalk and Grass (terrain) textures, simply add any grass textures to the same folder as the Paving textures. If you plan to use multiple sets, it's better to use separate folders for Paving and Grass.

 

Note: The 2 dirt textures are not typically displayed in game, but must reside in any custom folders that are selected for processing with custom Grass textures.

 

Terrain mod textures, especially HD ones, are typically unsuitable for use here, since they are very large. In some cases up to 1024x1024, four times the normal size. If you take a 1024x1024 texture and rescale it to 128x128, it will loose a lot of the quality and details. In fact, the new texture may barely resemble it's full size original. So if you want to optionally use grass textures, which textures should you use? Well there is no easy answer, unless you are using one of the Terrain Mods supported by my TGN mod.

 

For users of either of Gobias' Berner Oberland or Sudden Valley terrains, you can use textures included with the terrain mod.
          Filename: BO Base Texture Replacements.dat (Berner Oberland)
                             SV Base Textures.dat (Sudden Valley)

For users of Lowkee's Appalachian terrain, Orange/VIP's Pyrenean or any future TGN mods, you can find a similar textures included within their TGN counterpart.
          Filename: TGN Base Textures.dat
          It should be noted, the TGN files are unified wealth only, (i.e. all 3 wealth's have the same texture).

 

Following the same instructions as for the Paving textures, typically the three grass textures you are looking for should have the following IDs:

• 7AB50E44-0986135E-251C1004
• 7AB50E44-0986135E-251C2004
• 7AB50E44-0986135E-251C3004

For other terrain mods, if you want matching grasses, you will probably have to make such textures yourself. But of course, with both sidewalk and grass textures, there is nothing to stop you from using any textures you can get your hands on. If you have a texture you want to use for sidewalks or grass with GoFSH, either downloaded from the exchanges or that you have created yourself. You just need to ensure they are .bmp files, so pretty much anything you can find in the LE can be used. Otherwise textures found on the NET might work too. There are plenty of easy tools for cropping, resizing and converting images, the options are literally endless. Whatever way you get these textures, for use with GoFSH, you should name them accordingly:

 

$ Wealth Grass	Grass10C.bmp
$$ Wealth Grass	Grass20C.bmp
$$$ Wealth Grass	Grass30C.bmp
Wealth 0 Dirt	Dirt00C.bmp
Wealth 7 Dirt	Dirt70C.bmp

Notes:

• I'd recommend using textures no larger than 256x256 with GoFSH.
  GoFSH will re-scale larger textures for you, but this can result in lesser quality output, use 128x128px textures for the best results.
• The default Wealth 7 texture corresponds to the Rural Sidewalk, texture ID 7AB50E44-1ABE787D-08400004.
  This is used as the underlay for rail tracks and zoning next to farms. However, the dirt textures are only used in special circumstances and so it's unlikely you will need them.

[rsc204 21,804]

Running a simple 1-step script

1. Download and Extract the Repository

Before you can utilise GoFSH's automation, you will need an appropriate repository, which should contain the necessary resources. At the minimum any downloaded repository should consist of the following:

• C0 files - Bitmap textures (BMP)
  These textures are the originals used in-game.
• D0 files - Definition Alphas
  Definition Alphas use Alpha Channels to define how to process the matching C0 texture. The simplest way to explain them is that the different colours of the D0 texture map what to do, when processing the C0. For example, if white that part of the original texture is kept as-is, if black, transparency will be added there. The other colours used Red, Blue, Green and combinations thereof, can then define where to place grass and sidewalks, allowing GoFSH to rebuild a texture with custom elements, to create an otherwise exact copy.
  
  There are two types of definition alpha, one used for traditional network textures and another for Puzzle-Piece and Lot Textures. A more complete explanation can be found here.
• A GoFSH Build Script (.TXT format)
  Such files contain the script that tells GoFSH what folders/files to process.

Downloading a repository couldn't be simpler, just find a link to the repository you wish to use and download it.

Because of the way these components interact, it is imperative that the file/folder structure is not altered from it's original design. Therefore the easiest way to prevent problems is to distribute such repositories as a single .zip file archive. This also allows for smaller, more efficient file sizes. As with any normal .zip archive, you need to extract the files from the package, which should output a new folder containing the contents. Once you have done this, you may move the root folder that was extracted, but not any of the files/folders within it. If you do change things, it's very likely that you will run into problems.

2. Read the Readme file (where included)

It might seem obvious, but this step can be vital to understanding a downloaded repository. It should detail what the repository is designed to do, any optional features and other important information.

3. Preparing GoFSH to Build your Custom Textures

At this point you should be ready to begin the process with GoFSH. So open the GoFSH application and select the option "Run Script" from the main interface. First you should click on "Select Buildfile...", this will bring up a window where you need to find and select the GoFSH Build Script. Typically this will be in the root of the folder extracted with the repository. Navigate to that location and select the appropriate .txt file, then click Open. GoFSH will now check the validity of the script, if there are problems, it will report any errors. If all has gone well, the last line in the list will display "Ready..." and the button Start Build will now be selectable.

Now GoFSH knows what files to process for you, the next step it to select the Sidewalk and/or Grass textures to use when making the textures. To do this, click on "Select Textures...", this window will then appear:

At the top are two drop-down selection lists, by default both will show "Maxis", which means that the Maxis Grasses and Sidewalks (Paving) are currently selected. If you've followed the previous tutorial here "Setting up GoFSH to use your custom textures", you should have a set named Custom. Make sure this is selected for either Grass, Paving or both, depending on your requirements. Of course if you have made alternate sets of textures for use with GoFSH, you are free to pick any combination of those at this point.

Note: Depending on the repository, you may need to use textures other than Grass/Paving for generation. For example, the SAM 11 repository I created adds concrete to textures, so using sidewalks would probably be undesirable. Usually any such anomalies will be clearly documented in such a repository's readme.

There is also the option from the above screen to manually select each texture used in generation. To explain how this works, you need to have an understanding of the wealth types used in SimCity 4. I'm sure you've noticed in-game how sidewalks and grasses used, change depending on the wealth of the buildings that grow next to them? Those are the $ (low wealth), $$ (med wealth) and $$$ (high wealth) options. Both sidewalks and grass have unique textures for each of the three wealths.

By default a typical GoFSH script will be setup to apply your textures to mirror these wealth groups (where used). But what if you don't want to use the default settings? For example, let's say you want to use the $$ sidewalks where $ sidewalks usually appear? There are two ways to accomplish this, the first is when making your custom texture groups, to match those to your desired preferences. So using the previous example, the Paving10C texture would be a copy of the Paving20C texture. This setup is perfect if you consistently will use such customisations. But what if you want to use the $ sidewalk sometimes, but not always? You can use the "?" buttons to override a given texture from the pre-selected groups, just for the current session instead. Simply click the "?" next to the appropriate texture. Again we'll stick with the previous example, so we click the "?" on the Paving10 $ line. Now we can simply select Paving20C and click "Open". Left this way, whenever the script asks for the $ wealth sidewalk, the $$ sidewalk would be used instead. But you could select any texture you liked during this process including independent Paving/Grass selection. Meaning you can totally customise how the mod GoFSH builds will be created if you wanted to.

Having setup your texture preferences how you want them, click on "OK" to close this window.

4. Running the Script and Finishing Up

Once you have setup everything in Step 3, you simply need to click "Start Build", GoFSH will then start making your custom textures. You can see the textures being processed in the main window of the application. The processing time will vary greatly, depending on both the size of the repository and speed of your PC. You can leave the process to run in background and do other things whilst it processes. For example my Terrain Grass NAM mod takes almost one hour to process for each grass variant, due to the sheer number of textures present. Just bear in mind that the Script Processor window will always remain on top of other windows. As such, you way want to move it (which can be done whilst processing), so it's not in the way.

When the script is finished, a small window with a question box will appear, asking if you want to remove temporary files. Sometimes I find this doesn't always appear in view (i.e. it's hidden). In which case, using Alt + Tab to switch to this window will allow you to see it. Otherwise you can select it (by ensuring the GoFSH application is selected) and Press "Y" for yes or "N" for no on your keyboard. Almost always you will want to clear up these files, since they are of no use whatsoever and merely created as part of the process. For some multi-step scripts though, you might need to hold off this process until the entire set of scripts are complete. Such repositories should clearly document any such requirements. Multi-Step scripts are covered in the next section of this thread.

5. Using the Finished Files

When GoFSH finishes a script, typically it will create a number of .DAT files containing your custom textures in a game-ready format. All you have to do is locate them and move/copy them into your Plugins folder.

Once more, the location of the output files should either be the root folder (where the script was) or a special subfolder there. In some cases, typically more complex mods, there may be many folders and various options you need to choose between. It's really impossible to cover all potential options here, again that should be clearly noted in the readme for your repository.

It is important to bear in mind that most mods made using this process, will be overrides of existing textures. In such cases, the new files must load later than the originals, otherwise you simply won't see any difference in-game.

If such textures are part of the Network Addon Mod (NAM), the simplest solution is using a folder named with the prefix "z____" (that's 4 underscores) to store your files. The most common problem with load order concerns people not understanding the importance of this prefix. Plenty of information exists on the forums regarding load order, so I'm not going to get into it here in depth.

[rsc204 21,804]

Index of Repositories Currently Availible

Note that this list will be updated as new repositories are released, keeping them all in one handy place.

RRW ReSkin Team @Eggman121, @rivit, @Simmer2 & @rsc204:

• RealRailway (RRW) ReSkin
  The RRW ReSkin repository allows users to customise the look of the RRW textures from the NAM. You can use any textures to replace the existing Ballast and Sleeper styles and create entirely unique RRW texture sets.

 

@rivit's Repositories (OneDrive):

• RUM for RRW (including ReSkin support)
  Build a custom set of textures for RUM for RRW. Useful for adding custom grasses/sidewalks to various rail textures, such as crossing pieces. Alternately, can be used also to create matching textures for extending the RRW ReSkin.
• SAM Mods
• Urban Tar Sealed Streets
  Create a custom version of Rivit's Urban Tar Sealed Streets with your own grass and sidewalks.

 

@hugues aroux's Repositories (OneDrive):

• WestWind Streets and SAM variants
  • Create a custom version of WWstreets & WW-SAMs with your own grass and sidewalks.
• Various other textures : parking, pedmalls,  ...
  • Adapt these texture sets with your own grass and asphalt (...) textures ...

 

@kingofsimcity's Repositories (Google Drive):

• Super SHK Mega Parking Textures + SuperSHK+ FA3 Parking Textures (SuperSHK for GoFSH 
  Create a custom set of SHK Parking textures covering both these packs, showing your grass and sidewalks.
• SuperPaths Pathway Textures
  Includes textures formerly found in Park Pack #1, #2.
• KOSC Logistics Essentials (DEC 2018) - v 2.00
  Formerly known as IdM - Trucking Essentials

 

MGB's (@rsc204) Repositories (OneDrive):

• SWN (Sidewalk NAM)
  The ultimate NAM texture mod, use your sidewalks and grass choices to completely remove the original Maxis textures from the NAM. Complete sidewalk unification is now just a few clicks away.
  • RTMT Textures
    This is included as part of SWN, but you can use it to generate a set of RTMT textures showing your sidewalks and grasses only.
  • MTRDK
    The Maxis Texture Replacement Development Kit can be used to create the basic pieces of any Sidewalk Mod.
    
    Available as a stand-alone download on the STEX, or otherwise included as part of the SWN Repository, this handy kit makes it a breeze to create and customise sidewalks for SC4 and/or expand them to the Maxis Lot Textures.

    To create a custom sidewalk, you simply need to run the included script and point GoFSH to the textures you wish to use. When finished you’ll have a ready-to-use DAT file, which is super useful for testing new sidewalk combinations with the minimum of fuss.
    
    Using the included resources you can also create a set of overrides for all the Maxis LE textures that include sidewalks to match.

• TGN (Terrain Grass NAM)
  TGN already supports 4 different HD terrain mods. But the repository is offered for those wishing to make a custom set themselves.
• Rural GLR Mod
  Want to customise elements of the Rural GLR? This repository is released so you can do just that. Although most users will be better off using the mod from the STEX/LEX, which includes a repository that allows customisation of the crossing textures.
• SAM 6 - Darkend
  My adapted SAM 6 set.
• SAM 7 - BikePaths
  The SAM 7 Bikepaths mod allows you to further customise both the grass and dirtpaving elements of it's textures.
• SAM 11 - IndustrieSAM
  IndustrieSAM can be altered to use a custom concrete style, in addition to altering the default grasses used on some textures.

[rsc204 21,804]

Index of 'Install and Go' Customisations, created using Automation

Alternative RRW ReSkin Styles:

 

[Lab Rat 12]

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