[2015] Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager - Forum Archive

[6StringShaman 112]

LE Help! Complete Novice here

Hi all,

Could anyone recommend a beginners tutorial for the LE or create a new one?

The ones I'd seen previously had pics with broken links.

I would love to get a hold of this process and do some customization with all the great prop packs that are available.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

Best,

H.

[rsc204 21,866]

Since there are no replies, I'll just let you know I'm working on such a thing, actually it's mostly complete apart from some revisions and will be available as a HTML download on the STEX in the near future.

[6StringShaman 112]

Awesome,

Thanks so much for your reply.

I will be looking forward to seeing what I am sure will be extremely helpful,

considering your ample skills illustrated by your posts.

Best,

H.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

turns out I was wrong, it wasn't entirely due to my antivirus

I needed a .dll file and thus comes problem #2. The download Wougaine gave for this .dll file is 32bit and I run 64bit Windows 7.

 

The file is - MSVCP71.DLL does anyone know a safe place to DL it in 64bit?

[Mister Giggles 310]

Bitness doesn't matter. Windows x64 will run x32 .dlls just fine. If the program isn't running, even with the .dlls, something else is wrong. PIM-X must be run as administrator its first time on Windows 7 to make registry entries and such.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

one other issue my computer has is that my anti-virus does still go crazy over the w9xpopen.$$A file. Could that be an issue? Running it as administrator still doesn't do anything.

[rsc204 21,866]

Not sure what that file is all about other than it's part of the Python Libraries, according to this you don't need it if you are running WinXP or newer.

[Star21Sim 5]

Mirror a building using the Lot Editor?

I downloaded the lot editor and I have a house where I wanted it pointing in a different direction, it's not turning the house I want I know it's page up and page down, but having the house in mirror direction, I thought it was ctrl M, but it didn't  work.  It was something I think M for mirror direction, but couldn't remember..

[rsc204 21,866]

Mirroring only works for textures, it is key M in that case.

In short, can't be done, 4 rotations is all you can do with any SC4 model.

And now for the Jargon bit...

SC4 doesn't use 3D models, the rendered models you download are in a special game-ready format. Each of the included textures represents how the model will look from one of the 4 views in SC4. Those parts you wouldn't see in an isometric game, simply do not exist in the textures. Therefore it is simply impossible to do anything with a rendered SC4 model except rotate it in increments of 90, otherwise it would display incorrectly. Mirroring would be a problem as the textures themselves are rendered at an angle, as such mirroring them would not look pretty.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

And you shouldn't be guessing about the character set.  CTRL+M is the same as a Carriage Return.  Find yourself an extended ASCII table and you'll see the official meanings.  Here are a few of the remappings I am aware of for SC4.

CTRL+x: Debug.  Opens the 'cheat' window.

CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+<click on god icon> Enter god mode (from mayor mode)

CTRL+s Save with region snapshot

CTRL+ALT+s Save without region snapshot

q,w,e zone low, medium, high residential

a,s,d zone low, medium, high commercial

z,x,c zone, I-Ag, medium, high, industrial

r construct roads

ALT+r construct streets

t construct heavy rail.

Actually the whole keyboard is remapped, and I think this is detailed in the manual, which you should have.

Function keys control game functions or brushes depending on the combinations used.

 

[Star21Sim 5]

Mirroring only works for textures, it is key M in that case.

In short, can't be done, 4 rotations is all you can do with any SC4 model.

And now for the Jargon bit...

SC4 doesn't use 3D models, the rendered models you download are in a special game-ready format. Each of the included textures represents how the model will look from one of the 4 views in SC4. Those parts you wouldn't see in an isometric game, simply do not exist in the textures. Therefore it is simply impossible to do anything with a rendered SC4 model except rotate it in increments of 90, otherwise it would display incorrectly. Mirroring would be a problem as the textures themselves are rendered at an angle, as such mirroring them would not look pretty.

thank you I remember now, it doesn't work on houses or buildings, but on textures, haven't used it in a while..

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

What happened to my lot?

So I made a lot of Bacos old Walmart and I ran into a problem when I put it in game.

The textures are missing at certain distances and when I could finally see them, they ended up being the WRONG textures.

 

Here's the problem.... (also note dissapearing props from SHK's car sets)

 

 

I used textures that hada  green median in the middle (BSC textures maybe), not those up there.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Either you have conflicting textures in your plugins (I hope you're not using your full plugins folder for lotting!), or you simply added one texture over an existing one. The LE is somewhat buggy in that respect and will often keep the texture you replaced. Depending on zoom and camera angle, either the old or the new texture will be displayed in game if that happens. The safest method is deleting the old base texture first (so that the tile doesn't have any base texture at all) and then adding the new texture.

[rsc204 21,866]

As for the disappearing cars, are you sure that's what's happening here?

SHK used a series of timed props for his cars, if placed correctly this gives the appearance of cars coming and going throughout the course of a day. Typically you need to place 4 props, one for each time slot to make this work. In any case, I highly recommend you read the documentation that came with SHKs pack to familiarise yourself with all the ins and outs.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Either you have conflicting textures in your plugins (I hope you're not using your full plugins folder for lotting!), or you simply added one texture over an existing one. The LE is somewhat buggy in that respect and will often keep the texture you replaced. Depending on zoom and camera angle, either the old or the new texture will be displayed in game if that happens. The safest method is deleting the old base texture first (so that the tile doesn't have any base texture at all) and then adding the new texture.

one thing though, it's the overlay texture thats the issue not the base. the base is just a simple CP texture that you can see elsewhere on the lot.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, I don't know which overlay textures are supposed to be there, I don't know if the textures that can be seen on your lot are base or overlay textures, and I don't know what texture packs you have installed and/or if the problem persists if you use the lot in a plugins folder that only contains the lot and its dependencies.

Lacking these pieces of information, it's hard to help.

[Ng_pillow 162]

LE glitch?

is that a glitch? my model in gmax is fine, but when in LE, the side looks sliced off. 

this is the building i designed. It looks fine on gmax render

[rsc204 21,866]

Probably a rendering error, did you install the texture fix for SC4 BAT? Take a look at the BAT Mega FAQ here, it's a very useful resource starting out and includes a link to the update.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Yup, this is not a glitch in the LE. It's a rendering error. What you see in the Lot Editor is what your rendered and exported building will look like in game. Fortunately, the problem is well known, and you should be able to fix it using the pointers in Jasoncw's Mega FAQ that rsc204 linked in his post.

[Ng_pillow 162]

So what Jasoncw suggested is to get this ' ModelNames.ms' and download it. Where do i put this file?

And how do you fit LODs? Because what my building is supposed to take up a 3*4 area actually takes up a 4*6 area in the LE. 

 

[rsc204 21,866]

Quote

A few users have noticed problems with building textures in the game after utilizing the B.A.T. or downloading new lots with B.A.T.-created content. This problem is especially apparent on larger buildings. If you have noticed something like this, please download this very small (31KB) script file. Place the file into your GMAX scripts directory (typically located in C:\\gmax\gamepack\bat\scripts\ where C: is the drive letter containing software applications), overwriting the old version of the file already in that directory.

LODs can be created automatically using the appropriate function in SC4BAT - BAT / Parameters Roll-Out / Re-Fit LODs. However these will always be a simple box. In many cases you might need to manually adapt them to ensure the entire model is encompassed by them.

[Ng_pillow 162]

so i placed the modelnames.ms at the correct place, and the building looks ok on the LE, which enables me to do the props and stuff. 

However when tested in the game, I got pissed i still see the same thing again:

 

[rsc204 21,866]

Have you re-rendered the model since installing the texture fix? Also did you re-create the LOD's first, because they need to fit the entire building as previously mentioned.

[Ng_pillow 162]

Oh so you need to just fit the LODs to encompass the entire building, but in the render and game, the LOD won't show up?

[Ng_pillow 162]

Edit: ok nvm. got my BAT successfully in the game and i'm very elated. 

thks anyways! looking forward to uploading this BAT on STEX. Just need to add that roof texture.

[rsc204 21,866]

Your LODs are actually the building you see in-game, albeit with textures applied. What SC4BAT does is render the textures based on your model so when applied to the LODs they will give the illusion of a 3D model which is in fact only 2D textures. This is why you can't rotate rendered models or adjust other parts of them, outside of the modelling program used to create it, no 3D model exists.

[Ng_pillow 162]

How do i get texture IDs for SC4 tool?

In order for one to create their own base texture in the LE, there's a need to key in a texture ID in the SC4 tool. There's a weblink that allows one to get their own ID, however it appears to be not working anymore (https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=50806) (aka BSC texture index). How am i supposed to make textures then.

[rsc204 21,866]

The link is just out of date, you can request a range here on SC4D. You only really need to do this if you are planning on releasing the textures you create.

Every object in the game needs an ID to work, for textures you must specify the instance ID.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager Forum Archive 2015

This thread contains all of the stray topics created in 2015 in the Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager forum. This thread serves to condense those topics into one topic before merging into the new SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop forum.

However, all of the posts from the original threads are merged chronologically, which means that if two threads were posted in during the same time span, their posts will be mixed together, making it harder to read. To help with this, the title of original thread has been edited into the original first post of each thread.

Remember that you can use Ctrl+F to search through your current page.

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-Jasoncw