Making custom pedestrians for sims in 'My Sim Mode'?

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

Is there any way to make custom pedestrians for sim in my sim mode for SimCity 4? and if there is, how do i do it? Also, are there places where i can download custom ones too?

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

I don't know the detailed answer, but here's how I'd start if I were looking into this. First I'd open SimCity_1.dat in Reader, Change to Exemplar Tree View, and find this:

 

Then I'd select the Bike as the first Pedestrian Style to see this:

 

I'd remember that last Model Resource Key hex number and then go into SimCity_2.dat, sort by Instance Number, and that would show me the FSH images:

 

So, as an override I'm certain it could be done. Prolly adding your own is an option as well, but way beyond my knowledge for how to do it. And what to do after the FiSHing expedition is beyond me too.

As an aside you might (or might not) be interested in a mini tutorial I wrote for adding new Sim Faces.

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

oh i can only do it as an over-ride? 

 

well, i guess that's ok. But if you or anyone else figures out how to do it without replacing any of the in game ones let me know and I'll definitely check out the sim faces tutorial too

 

thank you ♥ 

[catty-cb 4,412]

2 hours ago, Joe_Winko_From_YouTube said:

.... But if you or anyone else figures out how to do it without replacing any of the in game ones let me know and I'll definitely check out the sim faces tutorial too ....

The original version of the SIMs had a built in menu so you could import into SC4 your SIM characters and vice versa you could import your cities into the SIMs, so if you want some new "My Sims" the zip file I'm attaching to this post has 37 of them ... most of them are cats and dogs as I had (well still do have somewhere) the pet version of the SIMs, but as for adding new transport options its not something I've ever wanted to do.

MySim.zip

EDIT: After posting this I went off to do something else but with something niggling away at the back of my mind ... I think I remember having my sims driving around in smart cars or not ... its been a long time since I used the My Sim Mode

-catty

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

4 hours ago, Joe_Winko_From_YouTube said:

oh i can only do it as an over-ride? 

No, no, no. I only said that is a definite option, but I also said: Prolly adding your own is an option as well, but way beyond my knowledge for how to do it. (And even doing the override is beyond my knowledge as I don't currently know how to replace those FSH files either. It's doable. Just not something I know.)

It's a matter of knowing what to do and how to set up the exemplars for them. I would guess it's highly likely additional ones can be added without needing to override any of the existing ones. The how to do that part is just beyond my ability. (And prolly will be forever as my interests lie elsewhere.) If I were going to investigate further I'd imagine the first step would be to make a duplicate of one of the existing exemplars then change it to be its own unique instance ID and then look for how to integrate that into the existing set. Then you'd need new images for every angle and zoom level like those shown for the bicycle mode of transportation. These would then need to be referenced or embedded or something.

The thing is that it'll take a pretty good working knowledge of exemplars and unfortunately there is almost no interest in MySim mode as evidenced by a total of 3 threads (including this one) in the past 14 years with regard to said mode. I personally use MySims in game, but I'm already happy with the modes of transportation so I'm not likely to ever look into that part any further than what I already know about adding new Sim Faces.

Basically what I'm saying is you'll need to investigate quite a bit. Learn all the ins and outs of modding and then apply that knowledge to this project.

[Silur 3,308]

I want to remove all the pedestrians from sC4. But it is very difficult.

[rsc204 21,866]

3 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

No, no, no. I only said that is a definite option, but I also said: Prolly adding your own is an option as well, but way beyond my knowledge for how to do it. (And even doing the override is beyond my knowledge as I don't currently know how to replace those FSH files either. It's doable. Just not something I know.)

Making new ones must be an option if you can import them from The Sims this way. So probably it requires a specific exemplar ID scheme, usually the Type ID is used to define what an exemplar does, otherwise the Group ID. I've never really looked into this stuff. But looking at the IDs/exemplars the addons use would give you a pointer here.

As for replacing the FSH files, that's pretty simple too. If you know what you are doing with UV mapping, just ignore using the Maxis textures as a template and correctly map your S3D model's UVs to a regular texture. Maxis combined many textures into one texture to save space, with the UV mapping ensuring the models picked up the parts they needed only. But trying to emulate this setup is just going to cause you more trouble than it's worth.

6 hours ago, Silur said:

I want to remove all the pedestrians from sC4. But it is very difficult.

Shouldn't be. Just find every exemplar that points to either a prop or animated prop of people and make a copy of them. Then set a Null Key as the Resource Key Entry. In other words, link the exemplar to the model ID 0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000 for each exemplar. This file will load after the Maxis ones, so instead of fetching the actual model, it will show nothing (transparency). Simple as that, all the pedestrians are now gone, at least for all content using the Maxis ones.

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

im surprised there isnt a tutorial or anything on how to make the custom pedestrian models. 

but i'll try finding out something.

If anyone knows how to make custom pedestrian models, let me know

making the images/sprites wont be a problem for me, but it's just the importing them in the game part really. 

[rivit 3,402]

Pretty sure the import from the Sims 1, isn't much more than a bitmap 36x41 in size. They go into the SC4\My Sim folder.

The game has a number of exemplars for MySims - starting 10102200 to 10103500 which appear to be reserved for certain uses. They are predefined anims. When MySims drive you just see the vehicle you chose, but in the caddy convertible it does seem to know whether your Sim is male or female as it chooses a person model accordingly.

Its possible, though I haven't checked, that some info is encoded in the bmp that was exported from Sims1 - MAXIS did things like that in other games. 

Most of the peds and other figures like llamas, dogs etc. are all anims - an area that is not deeply explored. They are simple FSH containing multiple frames at all zooms. Presumably the control exemplar (ATC) for these tells you how to pack the frames and play them back. Quite a few look to have deep roots back into the SC4.exe meaning they will be hard to hijack.

Like a lot of archeology in this game, Reader (its authors that is) knows more than any of us left.  Look into ATC files in SimCity1.dat for a place to start.

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

sorry to bump this old thread but im wondering if anyone ever figured out how to create their own pedestrian sprites for SimCity 4?

i read through some of the replies, but i didn't understand them so much. 

is it possible to duplicate the files in .dat reader and change the instance so they aren't an over ride? and if so, how could i import the images in? 

this is one thing i didn't play around with much back when i first posted this, but im going to look into it again sometime... but if anyone here has done it before me, any more advice would be appreciated mean while  

 

BUT 

one new question I had was, what if I only want the pedestrian sprite to show up for 1 specific sim from mysim mode? i wouldn't want it to be randomly generated in all the cities in my region. is there a way to do that? 

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

On 9/30/2017 at 8:49 AM, CorinaMarie said:

 First I'd open SimCity_1.dat in Reader, Change to Exemplar Tree View, and find this:

just wondering, how do i change to exemplar tree view?

 

UPDATE:

Never mind I figured out how to change to exemplar tree view... but im just curious, how would i clone it and make a new ped sprite option available? 

i could easily make the gif of a custom sim person walking but im just curious as to how to import it and get it to work in the game. 

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

13 minutes ago, Joe_Winko_From_YouTube said:

just wondering, how do i change to exemplar tree view?

Back when I said that I didn't know about a tiny glitch in Reader 0.9.3 when running on XP that would not let me use the quick Navigator shortcut button. (I later learned if I clicked something in the list it'd then work.)

Anyhow, once you've opened the .dat file, just click the Navigator button:

 

And then a 2nd window will overlay the first:

 

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

@CorinaMarie

Thanks CorinaMarie ♥ im just curious if you figured out how to duplicate the pedestrian sprites? 

i'm going to try figuring it out myself if i can but i was just wondering if you already found out. 

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

@Joe_Winko_From_YouTube

I confess I never even tried since my interests are in other aspects of the game. Good luck tho.

Also, I suspect you will also need to become familiar with GoFSH. (The included PDF starts with an excellent tutorial.)

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

16 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

@Joe_Winko_From_YouTube

I confess I never even tried since my interests are in other aspects of the game. Good luck tho.

Also, I suspect you will also need to become familiar with GoFSH. (The included PDF starts with an excellent tutorial.)

ok  thank you ♥

it shouldn't be too difficult for me to figure out but once i do i'll post it here how to do it

if anyone else has advice, feel free to share please