[2013] Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager - Forum Archive

[Harmanoff 1]

Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager Forum Archive 2013

This thread contains all of the stray topics created in 2013 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.

-Jasoncw

editting names

i am intrested in changing some of the ploppable building names of the power plants i downloaded and schools colleges and such...how do you change the name of it in the game?

[ThisIsMyName 23]

I asked that question not long ago, you need to use Ilive Reader to edit the exemplar, removing a name file so that when you then rename the bat in LEProp, it will show up properly in the game when you click the bat with the query tool. If you don't, whatever you put into LEProp will be overwritten. The thread is here --->

Hope that helps!

[trevor40 0]

Animated Props

Hi,

i'm trying to create a moving prop (rotating top) for a new park, i have the park and can create the bat and all works except for no rotation.

the gmax editor shows the animation being recorded and playback works too. i then add this prop to the park, but no rotating top on it (the top is there it just won't turn).

i am missing somthing as i am new to this.

i am also trying to add some neon or fluorescent lighting, any tips would be appriciated.

trevor.

[cogeo 960]

Have you installed the BAB?

An animated prop may be up to about the size of a game tile (less than 16x16m). Not sure how you can add nightlighting, but IIRC there are some animated signs released. If the prop is not visible (or not animating) during the night, you should also make a static prop (in its place) and display it as a night-only prop (while the animation will be day-only). And keep in mind that animated props feature a much worse texture quality than static ones, let alone if they are exported in HD.

Take a look at my on the STEX, to see how they are implemented (check the readme too).

[NCGAIO 562]

You can know more about real animation in ...

True 3D models - SOLVED

[MisterRisk1 26]

flower garden trail parks 2 paths "bug"

sry, i wasnt sure where to post this - hope its rigth here. just downloaded & tested the flower garden trail parks vol2 by 9988 :

and tried them - problem is that the overlay textures for the paths randomly change from "red brick" to "open paved (?)" as time passed or when I zoomed in or out. didnt find something in forums or somewhere else in relation to this.i checked the dependencies twice, actually this cant be the issue. maybe anyone else got the same problem and knows how to fix it?

 

sry for my bad english.

 

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Oh, these. I'm currently not on my SimCity PC, but it looks like the textures used there are the ones Maxis used for their open paved area. They may be randomised by default. I'd have to take a look at the lots to be sure, but if it is what I think, there's really no workaround other than editing the lots and choosing a non-randomised base texture.

[MisterRisk1 26]

got the same idea as well & plopped some of the maxis open paved areas next to them - and in my opinion its not the same texture - at least the red bricks are not (i guess) - it just behaves same way like them. if its helpful, i can make some screens of the lots later and post them.

[Kieren Barnett 76]

Essential DIY Airport Plug-ins

Hey all, I've been searching around quite a bit for all the airport pieces needed to make my own airport. Unfortunately, other than a few (good looking) planes, I have found nothing of any use.

 

Since I am rather desperate to have the ability to design my own airport, and seeing as though DIY airports are a big part of many of the better regions, I decided to create this thread.

 

The purpose is to gather, as a group, the essential lots and plug-ins to building your own airport. Submissions for any part of the airport, be in planes, runway pieces, buildings, can be made to this thread. I will then update the original post with a list, as well as credit to whoever found it, and whoever made the plug-in. To submit to the thread, please provide a link to the download, and a short descriptive title of the piece. I wont be too fussy if the submission isn't perfect, but the neater it is, the easier it will be for me to keep tabs on everything.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

The RMIP set contains the basic terminals, taxiways, runways, and other buildings and pavement.  There are 4 files; search for "RMIP" on the STEX.

[Lost Realist 762]

Creating MMPs

Hey guys, I'm busting my junk looking for something right now that I just can't seem to find.

I found a couple of tree props that I'd like to turn into MMPs so I can draw them with the brushes like other Mayor Mode trees. Now I was very certain that there was a guide or tutorial on how to turn props into MMPs somewhere, but after two hours of google, I give up. I just cannot for the life of me find a coherent guide on how to do it. Does anyone know? Can anyone either point me to a good tutorial or just quickly break it down for me? That would be super good of you to do.

[Cyclone Boom 17,032]

To do this, you'll need to use ilive's Reader, available This tool is very advanced, so it requires quite a bit of patience and perseverance.
Here are two tutorials on how to create mayor mode ploppables. The first is quite basic, and the second one goes into more depth.
 
Basic Tutorial -- Also take a read through the thread.
Advanced Tutorial (11 part)
 
If you need any extra help, feel free to ask.

[Lost Realist 762]

To do this, you'll need to use ilive's Reader, available This tool is very advanced, so it requires quite a bit of patience and perseverance.

Here are two tutorials on how to create mayor mode ploppables. The first is quite basic, and the second one goes into more depth.

 

Basic Tutorial -- Also take a read through the thread.

Advanced Tutorial (11 part)

 

If you need any extra help, feel free to ask.

 

Thanks man, I'll read into that whole load and get back to you if I don't get something.

[Thunderman 30]

RHW lot addition in the making but need help...

Hi there folks,

I just started to create a lot that will be a nice addition to the RHW... but i ran stuck on it and i've at it for several hours now.
My problem is that i can find any matching textures (may it be overlay or base textures) make it all matching up, seems like im missing some textures but i have no idea
on where to get them if they exist...

Im not that of an expert in lotmaking, sure i've made some lots in the past but they were quite simple to do... but now it seems to get more complicated with this project i just started...

That's why im asking if anyone can help me out in finding the matching textures or create them for me?
Here are some pictures to see what im working on and what i want to achieve...


This is one of the examples i want to achieve, only need the rhw/road textures for this

So if anyone can help me out, i would really be gratefull for this...

[MandelSoft 2,775]

The textures you see are actually part of the Euro Textures, to be more specific, it's patchwork of Dexter's RHW ESSO Gas station lots. These are very specialised textures, and can hardly serve any other use. I guess you need to make textures of your own...

[Thunderman 30]

That's what i thought... and i have no idea on how to make my own ones because like i said before im not of an expert making my own stuff... So if anyone can guide me in the right direction, or help me out in creating new textures for me, i would really be gratefull and can make this project work...Ofcourse credits will be given where credits are due

[AIX 270]

From the looks of it, you are trying to create some sort of rest stop, no?

 

The ramps leading to/from the rest stop can easily be made with plan-old RHW - I in fact do this all the time. Observe:

 

 

I am no BAT/Lot expert (hats off those who are), but from a logic stand point, I would approach this project by only working on something that fits within the red circle here and then transit-enable the lot to allow the MIS (or a RHW-x) to pass through. Would this not make the issue of creating your own textures a little easier to resolve?

[Thunderman 30]

That's what my plan was at first, to make the lot and then afterwards make it transit enabled. 

But i thought i could match up all the textures i needed in the lot editor but seems like i don't have matching ones, and that's where my problem started to arrise...

 

I never have made textures myself and just did a quick check on the tutorial which is in the onmibus, but ill give it a go when i got the time to do so....

But thanks for pointing this out to me AIX, this gives me a new insight on the matter at hand.

[Lost Realist 762]

Vertical Walls

After a bit of a discussion me and some others had in the "Can't find it"-Thread, I had a go at creating my own set of vertical walls and it worked out good. Mostly, anyway, because outer corner pieces don't work:

 

 

Looks like they dent the terrain to half level between the lowest and the highest point of the tile. I set the lot foundation to zero, which works fine with the other pieces as you can see, but the corners are broken. Please disregard the fact that I turned the texture around the wrong way, I'm an idiot.

This happens with nekos redbrickplaza-walls as well. Does anyone know a fix?

[cmdp123789 710]

Well that happened to me too lol!!! I was about to post the problem too 

[nosferatu247 20]

OK, I found a solution:

 

 

Raise the terrain with street tiles past where your corner wall is supposed to go, like you would do with a regular ortho wall. After that, plop the corner wall, bulldoze the street on the upper ground, and then plop street tiles below, one tile over.

[Thunderman 30]

or another solution to this problem might be to make the corner lot a 4x4 size? Dunno if it will work, but i guess it would...

[Akyhne 3]

Large Residental building

Hi.

 

I've made a residental Building 3*13 in size. But the lot editor will not make me create Buildings larger than 6*6.

 

I'd prefer it to be a ploppable residental.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

How to make a lot growable?

I have learned how to edit lots and put props on them. I want to know how to make lots growable. I am trying to make RG organic residential growable. 

 

[Magneto 316]

Here is a step by step tutorial using PIM-X: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2306.0

PIM-X user guide: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2257

 

Good luck

[KonstantinII 1,106]

 PIM-X:

What is it?

 

 

^^They are .dat files I have managed to open with the lot editor.

[CelticSaint 0]

Lot editor question

Hello guys

 

I have been playing around with the Lot editor, and after a while made a new 4x4 tile. It was a car boot sale, with lots of cars and people, a few fencs, trees and some street lights. It looked good, so I gave it a name 'carboot', and saved it (save as). I checked and It had appeared in my Documents > Simcity 4> Plugin folder, and I thought all was well.

 

However, when I restarted the computer a little while later, and opened up Simcity, I found the tile, but alas, all of the trees,and cars, and people were missing!!!! Also, it was called Gazebo (so I assume it had replaced one of the existing tiles.

 

Can anybody tell me what I have done wrong.

 

Many thanks for a great site!

 

EDIT - Just looked again and the cars etc etc all appeared (all apart from the trees), but then disappeared?

 

I would upload a picture, if I knew how! There is an image icon, but it asks for a web address.

[Magneto 316]

Could it be that you have 2 copies of the same file in your plugins? The lot editor behaves exactly like the game, if you have 2 files with the same ID, only the last to load is taken into account.

 

Let's say you create your lot with "save as" -> you have a lot with unique ID, shouldn't conflict with other files

Later you decide to reopen the lot to add stuff, you save -> you have 2 copies with the same ID, only the last to load will display

 

Since the lot editor put newly saved files directly in the root of your plugins folder (which is the first to load), if you don't remove the old one it will usually load after the new one, thus you won't be able to see the changes in game or in the LE.

 

Hope it's understandable

[KonstantinII 1,106]

Props not appearing in Lot Edirot

I've noticed that some props appear for me when editing certain lots like commercial or parks but don't appear when I'm editing other categories like say industry. And sometimes that problem is not limited to broad categories but a few specific lots. That is very irritating and I am looking for a solution to the problem.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Hi KonstantinII,

 

firstly, just so you don't wonder, I have moved your post to the Lot Editor sub-forum because it is not related to BAT models or the BAT software itself.

 

As for your problem, we'll need more specific information in order to be able to help you. "Some props", "certain lots", etc. doesn't really say much.

 

In general, props appear in the list no matter what category (commercial, industrial, landmark...) the lot belongs to. However, they will not appear if the footprint of the lot you are editing is smaller than the footprint of the prop you are trying to add. One example: If you are editing a 1x1 lot (16 x 16 metres), a prop with a footprint of 18 x 20 metres will not appear in the list.

 

You can still add it, but you will have to enlarge the lot temporarily, add the prop, and then make the lot smaller again so that the prop overlaps the edges.

 

I hope this helps. It is really a blind guess.