[2010] Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager - Forum Archive

[Frankie B 2]

It's Yoder's Hungarian Parliament.

Thanks

[lucasey 16]

lots don't display in game

I've created a few new lots using the lot Editor, but when I load SC, for some reason the lots do not appear in the game.  The created files are in my plug-in folder, but the lots don't appear to be in the game, and I've gone through all the menus.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

What kind of lots have you made? If they are growable buildings, then it's no wonder they don't appear in the menu. I'm afraid we'll need some more input. What exactly did you do, and what lot did you base it on? 

[lucasey 16]

plop lots. something that would be found in the landmark or parks menus, nothing growable

[Sam 163]

That one is going to be tough. There is a good reason you can't do a Save As on that one. Its a reward with quite a few extra files that depend on the lot iid remaining the same in order to work. When you Save As, you change the lot's iid, so the other files don't work properly. That's why the Save As button is disabled.

What I would suggest you do is get the model, use the PIM to turn it into a landmark, go into the Lot Editor and put your new copy onto a landmark lot of the same size (use one of the Maxis landmarks and increase the lot size). Delete any props, textures and other items on the original Maxis landmark. Save As. Then follow the Copying Lot Config Properties (another way to convert between lot types) tutorial that is stickied at the top of this forum.

That way you will end up with a lot that looks the same as the original, but which functions as a landmark. You can then do whatever you want with it. Your new lot won't function as a reward anymore, but that would be the case if you modified the original anyway, and that's what I assume you want to change anyway.

It is generally not a good idea to base your new lot on someone else's custom lot anyway, especially one that is as complicated as this one is.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Some more info will be necessary I'm afraid... I repeat my last question: What exactly did you do, and what lot did you base it on? Do other (downloaded) park or landmark lots work? Are you sure you dind't modify a reward lot that will only appear when (and if) certain conditions are met?

[Frankie B 2]

Thanks Sam it's appreciated

Yeah I know it's complicated, have done it a few times previously, all with the creators consent and I like having custom lots, allows me to create something more unique and exciting.

[issa76 10]

I have an another problem.

I thougth to have found a method to keep maxis's building thanks to T Wrecks by changing slope min and max and save in the LE. That's work good but since I have add the CAM,when I make save and when I open again the LE, the changes are not made!!

Someone can help me please!! This is important.

Thanks

OH I think I have found. With the reader I have open the CAM and I change all the growstage of exemplar files... I hope that's good!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I'm not familiar with the CAM since I don't use it myself, but my guess is that the CAM will deactivate/override all default lots and replace them with "CAM-ified" copies, which are probably contained in the CAM files. That's what I'd expect, but I could well be wrong. I don't have the CAM files at hand. 

[issa76 10]

why don't you use CAM?

[Sam 163]

The CAM probably also contains mods of the same lots you are trying to modify, but since they load after yours it is the CAM ones that appear in the game.

Also be careful modifying the growth stage, or you could achieve exactly the same effect as the maxis blocker mod, ie change it too much and it may make the lot growable only under conditions that it is impossible for the game to meet. I suggest only modifying it by 1 higher or lower than it is naturally.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Originally posted by: issa76

why don't you use CAM?quote>

(1) I don't build really huge cities, and my computer cannot handle them anyway, so there's not much need to go beyond stage 8 for me.

(2) I'm an absolute control freak, and I use lots of custom content from different sources. I don't have a single building in my plugins folder that's not modified to my exact liking. As you can imagine, that's tons of work, and I don't feel like going through all that stuff again to make everything compatible with the CAM, especially since due to my personal way of playing I won't benefit that much from the stages beyond 8.

If I had started from scratch after the CAM came out, the story might be different, but the way things are, I won't upgrade to CAM. The way things are, the CAM isn't really a must-have for me personally, and the amount of work to get all my finely balanced plugins "up to CAM" is excessive in relation to the benefit.

For other people, the equation looks different.

[lucasey 16]

some lots appear after editing and some don't. Some rewards have worked, like the Osturland Great Hall I modified that, as well as the Gothic bell tower and a few others, the issue that I run into is lots that don't have buildings on them. I might want to renders a different texture on a single tile and add a few props to it, sometimes it appears sometimes it doesn't. I'm not sure if after I click 'SAVE AS' that I'm supposed to then press 'SAVE' when moving on to another lot modification.

[genzeo 26]

 

Alignment issue

can you help me with this? i dont know why this happens

http://img651.imageshack.us/i/trial.jpg/

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

That is happening becsue of something you did incorrectly while rendering your BAT, it looks like it wasnt centered on the 0 point. To fix this you will have to re-render  your BAT with it centnerd.

1. Select your entire BAT

2. Go to Group>Group

3, Look down near the bottom of the BAT program, there are three boxes with numbers in them and the letters X Y and Z beside them. You will need to change numbers in thoose boxes.

4. Select the box to the right of X and put in 0 with your building selected

5. Select your building again and put in 0 in the box to the right of Y. Keep the Z number the same

6. Click the Hammer Tab then BAT then Paramaters. In that menu, press the Re-fit LODs button. Select yes if it asks you to desory the old ones.

7, Select your building and go to Group>Ungroup

8. Re-render your building, when the render finsihes it will be properly alligned.

[genzeo 26]

Thanks a lot I got it fixed  

[Sam 163]

I would suggest following Daeley's Mod your Own Rewards tutorial through. That should point you to the properties that need changing (things like ConditionalBuilding=true etc).  You can find the tutorial on SC4 Devotion here: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=1010.0

Sorry for slow reply.

[BIWDC 2,296]

I don't know if this is resolved now or not.

Edit-Check T Wrecks Post below before following what i wrote.

If the model is not appearing in the plugin manager(under models) 

delete the model file then try another render.

Usually another render fixes that.

I hope this helps(unless you tried it already),if you did then mostly likely

your gmax file is corrupt.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Just to rule out the obvious, did you place your .sc4model file in the main plugins folder? If it's in a sub-folder, the Plugin Manager won't see it.

[blackholster 0]

If a man talks to himself in a forest there is something wrong with him anyway.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Originally posted by: blackholster

If a man talks to himself in a forest there is something wrong with him anyway.quote>

Hehehe, that's probably true.  However, it doesn't really belong here, does it?  When I saw that there was a new post in this thread, I thought that there had been some news manwhile, or that someone had contributed another idea... 

[restored 0]

non functional lots

hi, i've downloaded the german embassy from the sc4 site in an attempt to get mtnh tramtrain station to work, but i cannot get it to work at all.

it said it downloaded it to ...\documents\sc4\plugins. but i cant find it there and it wont show up ingame.

I've installed gmax, bat and lot editor and i have the plugin manager, but dont know how to use them if i have to.

 

rly want to get that station working and ppls said i need the embassy then

 

oh yes, i've also downloaded the large train station by r102 wich the tramtrain station is based on.

[SimFox 804]

:-S

what is a connection between German embassy and a station?

but I could venture one thought... The actual download was consisting of an archive file ( a file compressed withing a special container format like ZIP or RAR). Once in your machine you're supposed to expand it (Compressed archive could be also in a form of EXE file - self expanding/installing archive, but that is more rare). Long story short - you also have to unpack said archive, once it is in your computer only that could see it in games menues.

As for the Lot Editor and BAT etc they all have help files explaining how to use them

[robin9000 88]

How do I get started in creating a functional growable lot.

I would like to create a sky farm but one that grows by it's self as agricultual. Anything I have found so far is for High tech. This takes my stats away for my real high-tech buildings / jobs. If anyone can direct me to one that grows by it's self and only acts as Agricultural or tell me how to make my own this would be most apreshiated.

Thank you.

[restored 0]

thnx for an answer, but i figured it out

for some reason the cowl and tram station on mtnh tramtrain station wont show up rendering the lot or what u call it useless, unless u have a lot called german embassy from sc4 off. site, my problem however was that once downloaded into ..\documents\sc4\plugins(cant change the dwnld dir.) it wouldnt show up, like if it wasnt there, if i tried to redownload it, it just warned me that the file alrdy was there and would be overwritten.

 

the solution was to run IE as an admin that way the file would dwnld properly thus solving all my problems.

 

i actually found a thread about that here at simtropolis afther an extended google search

turns out in win7 and vista u have to run IE as admin for files to download from the sc4 site

(site req. IE)

 

well thnx for your attempt atleast^^

[Sam 163]

Sorry I have no idea what a sky farm is. Could you explain more?

[Larks2242 251]

I think Peg makes one you can try his website.You will have to register if you have not already.

[robin9000 88]

Originally posted by: Sam
Sorry I have no idea what a sky farm is. Could you explain more?quote>

A sky farm is a building where a city could grow many of the different crops that we use in our every day lifes such as corn and so on. The differnce is, it is farming done on the vertical instead of the horizontal. I have found very nice ones on here but none of them I have found are made to be errected as Industry- Agricultral and instead are errected using High-Tech Industry or other catagories.

 

[Sam 163]

So would you not just get a suitable BAT and drag its model over the Agricultural Industry category in the PIM? That should make you a main farm building descriptor which you can then lot onto any maxis farm building lot. Then you will just need to sort out some suitable fields.

[robin9000 88]

Originally posted by: Sam

So would you not just get a suitable BAT and drag its model over the Agricultural Industry category in the PIM? That should make you a main farm building descriptor which you can then lot onto any maxis farm building lot. Then you will just need to sort out some suitable fields.quote>

I am not very familiar with how to do this? I know how to install the pluggins but what bits and pieces to add or remove to be able to do what you are saying I am not certain on how this is done.