Cori's Custom Prop Excursion

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

And in today's adventures I have (after much trial and error) learned how to make a custom prop. First I took screenshots of a Maxis god mode tree in SC4 and then made the images that SC3K likes:

 

Here I've placed it on a lot in the BAP:

 

And here it is in the game:

 

In case anyone would like to test this I'll attach it here. The zip contains it as a prop package, a building, and as a landmark for easy testing.

Cori Tree 01 Pkg.zip

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

OK so how do we install this into the game?   I have downloaded the file and I've got 3 folders of stuff.  Where do I put everything to make it work in-game?

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

2 minutes ago, RandyE said:

OK so how do we install this into the game?

1. The file in the Buildings folder goes into C:\GOG Games\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Buildings.
2. The folder in PlugIn goes into C:\GOG Games\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\PlugIn
3. The folder in Props goes into C:\GOG Games\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\BACustom\Props

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

11 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

• The file in the Buildings folder goes into C:\GOG Games\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Buildings.
• The folder in PlugIn goes into C:\GOG Games\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\PlugIn
• The folder in Props goes into C:\GOG Games\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\BACustom\Props

OK done, and got it in-game, plopped it as a landmark.  Can only plop landmarks once.  It is beautiful and I love it, but does it grow in RCI?

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

7 minutes ago, RandyE said:

It is beautiful and I love it, but does it grow in RCI?

Thanks!

And I hope so. I created it as Residential so you can replace some other lot with it and see what happens. Use the Query tool on a 1x1 already grown res lot, click to get the info popup, and then click Replace. Now select my tree lot from the list and click the green down arrow. I just tested it with Open Lawn and all instances of those changed to my tree lot.

[rsc204 21,804]

A nice idea, but might I suggest an easier way to try this (perhaps not so easy for Maxis stuff though)...

• Take a model file and open it with GoFSH (using FSHxDAT).
• Use that to locate and extract the FSH (texture) files from the model.
• Convert them to .BMPs using the main GoFSH interface (Open using the ... button in the bottom left, select Decode and hit GoFSH).
• Then find the four largest texture pairs (-C0 image and -A0 alphas) and discard the rest.

Now you should have the image used in the model as flat textures in all four needed rotations. But, you also have an Alpha Mask. In Photoshop you should then be able to get a perfect "cut" using the existing alpha. Saving time and effort doing it manually with better results too. Not sure if those would perfectly translate with SC3K, but in theory it should.

As for why perhaps not so easy with Maxis stuff... well Maxis have combined many prop/model textures into single textures. Using something called U/V mapping you can specify what parts of the texture you want, so you only get the part of the texture you need for a given model. Cutting those may be problematic, since you need to keep the perspective in proportion I suspect. But it'd be interesting to see if SC4 models could be so easily converted.

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

10 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I just tested it with Open Lawn and all instances of those changed to my tree lot.

It worked!  Cori, you get the 5 llama rating for this one. 

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

@rsc204 That sounds like a very useful technique. Would I get better quality that way? Otherwise, I'm quite happy how my method has worked out.

 

On 6/9/2017 at 5:43 PM, RandyE said:

It worked!  Cori, you get the 5 llama rating for this one. 

I'm glad you like it.

 

I loaded the Farmsville city. Here's before:

 

And after:

 

And I believe the SC4 tree looks much better than the 3K default ones.

[rsc204 21,804]

31 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

That sounds like a very useful technique. Would I get better quality that way? Otherwise, I'm quite happy how my method has worked out.

Yup absolutely, because you are taking a rendered image as a screenshot right now. I presume you are using cropping tools to cut the alpha too? No matter how careful you are with that, you'll never quite get it perfect, which is where Alpha Channels come into play.

Load a C0 bmp in PS, load the A0 (Alpha) as a separate file. Go to the channels selection, pick one channel of the alpha and copy it. Go back to the C0 file, select the New Layer button, only in channels, it will create an Alpha channel. Then paste the alpha in as I've done in the example below. Select Layer / Load Selection with the Alpha selected.

Now, switch back to the layer view and click the button circled in yellow. It will apply the alpha channel to your image. Black parts become transparent, white parts remain. With grey scale pixels showing gradients. Here I've got a perfect "cut" of a complex texture in seconds, without faffing about.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

2 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Here I've got a perfect "cut" of a complex texture in seconds, without faffing about.

Cool. I'd like to see that with a Maxis tree from the game to compare with. Btw, SC3000 requires Pink (#FF00FF) to be the transparent part. I haven't messed with any alpha channels at all. I just lasso the background, hit delete and it all becomes the pink that I have set as my background color. If there are see-thru parts I then paint them individually.

The quality level I'm obtaining is better than the game itself was written for. It might look odd if the trees were crystal clear as your method would produce.

[rsc204 21,804]

The point being, once you've cut the alpha channel, you can apply a pink background. Even if you don't want the quality, it's simply a more efficient method of working. Since the alpha channel already exists to map out the cutting for you. Rivit taught me how to work with Alphas and it opens up huge possibilities for working with textures. I'd urge you to give it a try, but frankly that's up to you.

2 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

It might look odd if the trees were crystal clear as your method would produce.

I doubt it, the Maxis content isn't a sharp or clear as you might think, a lot of it is (by today's standards) pretty poor. Certainly none of the flora is particularly good, producing artefacts at zoom 6 in SC4 for example.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

3 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Maxis content isn't a sharp or clear as you might think, a lot of it is (by today's standards) pretty poor.

Oh. So for no better quality and since you initially said the Maxis trees might be difficult to get to then this method seems better suited to SC4. I guess I'd need to see a final result before I'd be willing abandon my already working idea. Btw, my intention is to use only Maxis trees. If I go grabbing other peep's lots and extracting stuff there could be hurt feelings.

 

6 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

I'd urge you to give it a try, but frankly that's up to you.

I'm perfectly happy with the result I obtained. Once I get a pack of tree props and lots completed and put on the STEX peeps can decide for themselves if they are good enough to want to use them.

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Wow, great job!

I must say this is such a significant revamp to the neighbourhood. Both the tree and ground texture which adds more variation and life to the landscape. With all those empty spaces, the first pic looks like more a wasteland area in comparison...

Tip: To easily compare the difference, click an image above which opens the popup box, then use arrow keys to easily navigate back and forth.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

More trees:

 

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

That Farmsville (which comes with the game) wanted to grow into bigger buildings and crowd out my trees. So, I just created a messy little city and here's the residential section. (With more trees, ofc.)

[catty-cb 4,381]

Those trees are a vast improvement of the original game versions, thank you 

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

As I continue this project I decided it would be nice to easily visually see how many of each lot I'm replacing there are in a city. I created 14 place holder residential lots for that purpose:

 

And that let's me see this:

 

It also let's me check the Building Replacement Manager and see which ones I set to one of my tree lots which are not grown in the city:

^Notice the little folded down corner? That lets me know it's one I've replaced.

 

Click and hold on that turned down corner reveals the original lot:

 

These are simple 1x1 .BLD files. I'll attach them in case anyone else might find them useful.

Placeholder 1x1 Res Lots.zip

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I am right now looking at how SC3 displays stuff, and (as I already suspected in my building topic) it looks like SC3 desaturates everything.

I changed the RGB value for the airport zoning to 255 0 255 and after screencapping it it turned out as 231 0 231.

 

We can't truly compensate for it because we can't go over 255, but it's still a good thing to know that we must over-saturate things a bit before importing.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

I'm back on my tree project. (I got distracted with some other site related stuff.) Here's what I have so far: