Lot - Resources / Help

[nickvon 161]

3 hours ago, twalsh102 said:

I do get what you're talking about, but I don't think its going to be that simple. There's no guarantee that you will end up with a row of Row Houses. There is generally no guarantee, you will end up with buildings of all the same wealth level on a given street. There is no guarantee, you will end up with a row of Row Houses of all the same style if there are others in your Plugins folder with roughly the same stats

You're right, there will be no guarantee.  But I think I am going to try to engineer some sort of simulation akin to this premise.  There is some beautiful custom content that just refuses to grow among the weeds and I'm determined to at least try to balance things out a little bit. 

3 hours ago, twalsh102 said:

 

Capacities that bear no resemblance to RL was started by Maxis for a specific reason. SimCity 4 was never meant to simulate real life. It all comes down to scale scale. Remember that the largest City square in SimCity is 4 x 4 kilometers or roughly 2.5 x 2.5 miles. Many large university campuses are larger than that. Dallas-Fort Worth Airport built to scale in SC4 would not fit in two large City squares side by side. Over all, all its facilities take up a space more than 6 x 9 km.

Interpose a 4 x 4 kilometer square over a map of the city where you live and imagine what it would have to look like to fit in multiple millions of residents in that area. A SimCity large City square with a population of  just 1 million Sims would have a population density of 62,500 Sims / square km. The city with the highest population density in the world as of 2019 (Manila), had a population density of 41,500 residents / square km.

So changing the capacity satisfied for Residential, would also mean having to change capacity satisfied for all C and and I buildings as well, or you would run out of space long before you were ever able to zone enough space to meet all R demand. Or you would have to create numerous R only cities to be able to meet all the R Demand for your Region. Another way of looking at this issue using your example building: if you changed the capacities of all R buildings by the same percentages, you would need 10X as much residential-zoned area to house the same number of Sims in the same-sized buildings.

Of course Maxis didn't intend for realism but that doesn't mean we can't strive for better personal gaming experiences.  Personally, for me, it bothers me how small the residential areas are comparative to industry and commercial buildings.  At least for the cities that I've been creating as of late.  Most overhead satellite images of metro areas  that I look at have vast swathes of residential neighborhoods around the cities core.  Take a look at London on Google Earth sometime.  It's actually pretty interesting, to me at least.

3 hours ago, twalsh102 said:

A plug here. If you don't already have a copy, I would recommend downloading Prima's Strategy Guide for SimCity 4 Deluxe. There's a free download at https://archive.org/details/SimCity_4_Rush_Hour_Prima_Official_eGuide. I have to laugh here as I've seen paper copies of this for sale for as much as $70 US. The original price was only about $20. This book is indispensable for answering many questions about the the mechanics of the game

Thanks!  I've actually been needing this from time to time.  It's downloaded now!

[rsc204 21,866]

13 hours ago, nickvon said:

ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

The DLL files PIM-X requires (listed on the download page), can be thought of as dependencies. You will need them all to be able to run the app. Usually these are in system folders, I.e. any app on your system can use them. But if you download the DLL files standalone, you might need to put them into the install Dir of PIM-X before they will work.

Whilst we’re at it, there is another update listed too that you’ll need in addition to the main download.

[nickvon 161]

6 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

The DLL file PIM-X requires (listed on the download page), can be thought of as dependencies. You will need them all to be able to run the app. Usually these are in system folders, I.e. any app on your system can use them. But if you download the DLL files standalone, you might need to put them into the install Dir of PIM-X before they will work.

Whilst we’re at it, there is another update listed too that you’ll need in addition to the main download.

Thanks!  As soon as their site is back up I will check it out and download them.

[Uhus 22]

Hi,

I'm still practicing with PIM LE / SC4 Tool and would need some information about the required road position.

I'm working on a lot for the Shedd Aquarium (I've found the model in a prop pack) which has a huge park area (I'm working with a 9x14 lot).

The default setting for the road is front (which is the short side), but actually the Shedd Aquarium has a street on the right side.

So I moved the required road to the right side, but now I can't transit enable the lot with SC4 Tool (can't load the lot).

If I move the road back to default everything works just fine.

Can someone tell me what the road position is good for?

(as you can see on the picture I've managed to enable the lot for transit, but it's very annoying to move the road back an forth just to get SC4 Tool working)

[rsc204 21,866]

This setting only is really useful for growable lots, rather than ploppables. You can get lots to only grow on corners using these settings. 

[nickvon 161]

On 1/24/2021 at 4:53 AM, rsc204 said:

The DLL files PIM-X requires (listed on the download page), can be thought of as dependencies. You will need them all to be able to run the app. Usually these are in system folders, I.e. any app on your system can use them. But if you download the DLL files standalone, you might need to put them into the install Dir of PIM-X before they will work.

Whilst we’re at it, there is another update listed too that you’ll need in addition to the main download.

Downloaded the missing DLL files from some freaky place, but it works!  So thanks!  Is this the correct forum to ask about exemplar editing?  Or would the custom content forum be more apt?  I've run into a few things I need to query and I'm not finding the answers in the manuals.

[rsc204 21,866]

39 minutes ago, nickvon said:

Downloaded the missing DLL files from some freaky place, but it works!  So thanks!

Yeah, not really ideal, those files were never intended (nor are likely to be authorised), to be distributed as stand-alone files. What you should instead be downloading is the complete library for the packages that contain them. Essentially this is a licensing issue, if you include them in the .exe, like commercial apps do, you must pay for licensing. But if users get them for free themselves, they are basically open-source. MS f*ed up in their greedy monopolistic phase, these days they've realised it's not user friendly and doesn't benefit anyone, so the OS (Win10), can often just get them for you automatically. I did once track down the sources, something with Open GL/CL, a particular C++ Redistributable and another thing. But finding an old post of these forums is like finding two needles in a haystack, where only one needle exists.

44 minutes ago, nickvon said:

Is this the correct forum to ask about exemplar editing?

Honestly, it seems like you are getting started down the rabbit hole and these days, the idea of a single general thread for discussion and help, on a per-user basis, seems to really work out nicely for most folks. I wouldn't worry if not all questions seem to fit in a given category all that much, you can use this thread or open another, I'd probably use SC4 Modding - Open Discussion personally. We can move this thread or even edit some things to help adapt to new circumstances, really whatever works best for you. Just let us know (the staff), if you need anything in this regard. Otherwise ask away .

[nickvon 161]

On 1/28/2021 at 4:06 PM, rsc204 said:

Honestly, it seems like you are getting started down the rabbit hole and these days, the idea of a single general thread for discussion and help, on a per-user basis, seems to really work out nicely for most folks. I wouldn't worry if not all questions seem to fit in a given category all that much, you can use this thread or open another, I'd probably use SC4 Modding - Open Discussion personally. We can move this thread or even edit some things to help adapt to new circumstances, really whatever works best for you. Just let us know (the staff), if you need anything in this regard. Otherwise ask away .

 

On 1/23/2021 at 2:26 PM, twalsh102 said:

I do get what you're talking about, but I don't think its going to be that simple. There's no guarantee that you will end up with a row of Row Houses. There is generally no guarantee, you will end up with buildings of all the same wealth level on a given street. There is no guarantee, you will end up with a row of Row Houses of all the same style if there are others in your Plugins folder with roughly the same stats. One strategy I've heard of people using when they want to get a certain look to their neighborhoods is "whatever grows, grows; bulldoze what you don't want and cross your fingers that what you do want will eventually grow." You would still have the problem of buildings upgrading as Sims wealth grows, unless you tag the buildings you want to keep as "historical" (which keeps a building from upgrading). Otherwise there's no telling what you might end up with. As lots combine upon upgrading instead of say a row of 10 Row Houses, you could end up with something like row house, small mcmansion, small condo, row house, small condo.

So I stumbled through PIM and SC4Tool.  I found that PIM is somewhat confusing, I have alot of questions that the manual does not touch on, but those can get asked another time.  I found SC4 Tool pretty user friendly and easy to get the hang of.

What I did was edit every single residential housing group that I want to use.  This only took a couple hours, which is much faster than I originally thought it was going to be.  I'm fairly happy at the moment with the mix of housing units I utilize, in an aesthetic sense.  I edited them for zone type, building style, and capacity satisfied.  All are now set to Medium Density, Chicago style, and every single building modded to have 22 R$ and/or 14$$.   Growth Stages I left where the original building creator intended.

I have to declare that in the case of this scenario I've created, the capacity satisfied variable is THE biggest decider in what gets built.  Some of these buildings were created with very large capacity numbers.  When I run this simulation without any of my edits, well over half of these buildings never get to grow.

I have to say that I'm extremely happy with my results so far!  The housing mix I've selected looks great together.  Eventually I'll develop a low density mix and a high density mix.  I'm planning on using low density zoning for more hilly terrain, and to replace medium density zoning with high along avenues or places where gentrification is happening.

I still have to start a region from scratch now, as I'm on a new computer and feel like a fresh start anyway.  So I ran this simulation in the Kensington tile of the stock London region that SC4 comes with.

 

Again, I'm very happy with how this has all turned out.  Thanks so much for your help!

 

 

[nickvon 161]

On 1/28/2021 at 4:06 PM, rsc204 said:

Yeah, not really ideal, those files were never intended (nor are likely to be authorised), to be distributed as stand-alone files. What you should instead be downloading is the complete library for the packages that contain them

This was the link I was sent to from the SC4devotion PIM support thread.  Would it behoove me in the long run to DL the complete library then?

[rsc204 21,866]

47 minutes ago, nickvon said:

I have to declare that in the case of this scenario I've created, the capacity satisfied variable is THE biggest decider in what gets built.  Some of these buildings were created with very large capacity numbers.  When I run this simulation without any of my edits, well over half of these buildings never get to grow.

But this is the key to balancing content, it gets complex because of all the variables involved, but let's use a specific made up example to show the logic here.

So let's imagine a bunch of content is all Stage 4, R$, Low Density, 2x2 Lots. Half of that content has occupancy in the 40-50 sims range, the rest in the 80-100 range. Depending on the conditions overall and demand, the simulator is unlikely to mix and match it's selections between these sets. It'll either decide 40-50 sims per building is the best # for your current demand, or that the higher number is best. However, you also have to consider what exists in other Stages and Zoning types and much more besides. If all your content follows a consistent set of rules or formulas in how these stats are set, whatever the simulator decides is needed at a given time, will have the best chance of offering competing choices.

It could be as simple as those with higher numbers are simply outside the range for the given circumstances, to ever get picked. It's really not as simple as higher numbers not working, there is so much more you must factor in. Which is precisely why it makes little sense to pick through each growable you have, messing with the settings. PIM-X has been coded to utilise a single formula that only asks you estimate the usable space (filling degree) of a given building. So if all your content's stats conforms to this system, that will immediately balance everything without further effort required. Of course you might want to work out the formula for yourself or maybe use a different one, but you are on your own there and I suspect it's more hassle than it's possibly worth.

Note PIM (Plugin Manager) is a tool by Maxis, PIM-X/SC4-PIM/X-Tool (confusingly it has many names), is not the same thing, just for the sake of clarity.

58 minutes ago, nickvon said:

This was the link I was sent to from the SC4devotion PIM support thread.  Would it behoove me in the long run to DL the complete library then?

Indeed it was, because I suspect it was simply the "easiest" solution to link to the files online. If other applications on your PC required these libraries, you wouldn't need to install them. In my personal case, using Windows 7 or Windows XP, I've yet to have to download and install these files, my system simply has them and it just works.

Basically, the idea behind a .DLL or Dynamic Linked Library, is that you install it once, but many programs can use it. But for that to work, they must be placed into System folders, so when an App calls for them, it can actually find the file. This is the part that doesn't get setup when you manually download such files, so instead, you need them in the same folder as the App, as it's now the only way it will see them. This also means, you'd need a copy of each for every application that used the same file, which is inefficient.

I could harp on about how that site has no right to re-distribute such files, they are NOT freeware or Open Source for the most part. I could also mention that technically there is a security risk with going this route too. But the internet is full of things that shouldn't be, that in some cases are just the best intentions to make users lives easier. But in the case of most sites hosting such things, it's to monetise something that's in demand through ads and the like. Ultimately, it's each users choice to make in how they get these files, but I agree by not having the safest/correct method/links in the first place, it hasn't been made easy for everyone to do it properly.

[rsc204 21,866]

Verdammt! All this time I've been looking for the "post I made" on ST, when it turns out I'd linked to them on the SC4D Support Thread for this...

Quote

Sadly it's very difficult to say, because .dll files are pesky buggers and the specific ones you need depend entirely upon what was used when making the application.

As a programmer, these files are listed by the programming tool when you compile your app. But, unless you pay big bucks, it's not usually possible to re-distribute them directly with the application. Hence these issues with tools made by hobbyists are rarely there with commercial apps, who's developers pay the fees.

Confusing the issue more, none of these .dll files were intended to be distributed as standalone files. In fact, most such downloads are probably in breach of copyright, since it's highly unlikely the site you've found them on pays royalties to Microsoft etc. for them. Instead you are supposed to download the "runtime" kit which includes them and installs them correctly on your machine, it gets very complex quickly.

Where possible it's better to copy those you have manually to the system folder C:\Windows\SysWOW64. Any that remain, do a Google search, but don't download the .dll, find the "kit" it was included with and get that instead.

MSVCP71.DLL requires the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x86) package, I think version 2008.

GLU32.dll and GLUT32 come from the OpenGL drivers, which should already be on your system as part of your videocard drivers.

Lastly the GDIPLUS.dll comes from this Microsoft Runtime (GDI+).

If you install these correctly from the runtime packages, they should just work. Of course, there any many versions for all different development environments, if you get the wrong version it won't work properly because it may not contain the modules needed by the application.

Of course MS being MS, that last one is no longer available. Because heaven help anyone use legacy software or expect them to fix their past f* ups properly. You know what screw it, this is what happens when you get pedantic, it's probably just easier to download the .dll, there I gave up!

[AP 3,591]

Ran across another issue and hope someone can help...

I have a building that I want to plop on water, therfor I removed the base texture (that works fine, in game testing looks good). Then add the line "LotConfigPropertyWaterCompatibility" to my lots exemplar file to make it water ploppable and then this happens:

it looks like the lot now hase a very foundation (you can see that brickwall around it if you look closely). This was not the case before I added the line for water compatibility...

I remember using this method before and it worked just fine, no idea where this is coming from (we are definitely missen the facepalm emoji here)

 

FIX:
This issue has been caused by the type of building i selected for the model in PIM. I used the "harbour building" which appearently does this offset when removeing the base texture. Using "waterfront object" instead fixed it.

 

[Ducio 285]

I'm wondering if there is an easier way to view props when you are using Lot Editor? I mean, as opposed to opening them one by one in Editor. Like maybe with a tool or some other method to visually display the props so it is clear what is available in my plugins folder. For example, it would help if I could see all the different kinds of trees that are available.

 

[art128 4,622]

Yeah you can use the PIMX's lot editor. It gives you a nice clear view of the props you're selecting.

[rsc204 21,866]

The Maxis tools are basic, I don’t think they foresaw the number of objects we’d be looking at. PIM-X makes life much easier for almost all common lotting/modding tasks. Otherwise you could use a utility Prop Viewer by iLives or the Prop and Texture Catalogue to at least get some sort of preview. 

[Ducio 285]

11 hours ago, rsc204 said:

The Maxis tools are basic, I don’t think they foresaw the number of objects we’d be looking at. PIM-X makes life much easier for almost all common lotting/modding tasks. Otherwise you could use a utility Prop Viewer by iLives or the Prop and Texture Catalogue to at least get some sort of preview. 

Thanks both of you!  I heard of PIM-X awhile ago and forgot what it is. The Prop and Texture Catalogue looks amazing and so helpful! 

[divadarya 20]

I'm going to take advantage of being a born-again newbie to ask where to download the Maxis tool for creating lots. I still have a couple of cemeteries I created (a little on the crude side) but can't for the life of me remember the name of the tool or where I got it.

If there are better tools and discussions on how to use them, I'll gladly take that too.

[rsc204 21,866]

The Maxis Lot Editor and Plugin Manager were originally released with the disks for SimCity 4, a lot of digital editions don't include them, but you can find a copy by selecting Maxis Files from the STEX.

Alternately, a much better program that combines both those above into one, is SC4-PIM. Be sure to get the updates/dependencies/user manual.

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

What dose this error mean in SC4 PIM Extended 2009? I am trying to start a new lot and always ends up with the "IOError:....No such file or directory" line

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "treeDnD.pyo", line 93, in OnData
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 2918, in OnDrop
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3125, in CreateAnExamplar
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 940, in WriteADat
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'C:\\Users\\Nicks\\Documents\\SimCity 4\\Plugins\\KK_TMP_IHT_5x5-0x6534284a-0x9db6a771-0xddb70063.SC4Desc'

 

Solved: Turns out I was the problem and forgetting that I had folder access blocked. The notification was hiding from me until I dawned on me that I was a moron. Wasn't the first time. Nothing like wasting many hours on something that should be easy.

  Edited February 21, 2021 by Kloudkicker  
Solved

[divadarya 20]

Thanks for the quick reply! Will do. I'm toying with making some custom seaports and Los Angeles-based shops, houses and landmarks.

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

Here is my first lot final questions, how are the dilapidating and the abandonment textures selected. During testing I found out that my lot changes textures to some strange ones. Can I control these other textures? 

This one looks weird until 20Huskies told me that the transformers use a dielectric fluid and then its made since to maybe keep it for that reason. And a visual warning sign???

But than it took on this rail texture that just looks out of place. All three textures are from the same id group; Oxc9000____.

Thank you

[AP 3,591]

Hi everyone,

I was looking into the idea of creating content that needs other content to be placed in the game to be unlocked for the player. So basically a rewards chain.

I understood that this is done by adding a LUA file to my lot that holds the conditions for the reward to be unlocked. (described in this tutorial)

 

I was wondering if it possible to apply the building count to the region and not just to the city tile the player is currently playing on. I beleive the following line is used to check how many buildings of a certain type exist:

sc4game.automata.get_source_building_count

 

Maybe @RobertaME can answer this, I saw you are working on a bigger project...

[RobertaME 1,376]

4 hours ago, AP said:

I was wondering if it possible to apply the building count to the region and not just to the city tile the player is currently playing on.

Not to the best of my knowledge, unfortunately. It's possible to do something like that, but I think it would require creating a separate file outside the game engine using LUA defined functions that would store "sc4game.automata.get_source_building_count" for each city in your region, then read them all back on a function call and use those values in your reward conditionals. Possible, but very easy to mess up and cause problems. (like corrupt your region problems)

Of note, sc4game.automata.get_source_building_count requires that a building be tracked via the track_buildings table that is defined in the _constants.lua. Currently, only a select few buildings and the BSC Reward Essentials are in that table, requiring you to add "B5C00xxx" as an Occupant Group to any building you want tracked. (where xxx is an unused 3-digit hexadecimal code you assign to your buildings) @CorinaMarie came up with a way to add entries to the track_buildings table after execution, but you'll have to ask her about it... it's a tad above my pay grade. ;^)

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

50 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

I think it would require creating a separate file outside the game engine using LUA defined functions that would store "sc4game.automata.get_source_building_count" for each city in your region, then read them all back on a function call and use those values in your reward conditionals.

I recall exploring some of @Daeley's Lua code which does this.

So yes, @AP it can be created as you have in mind. It is likely in the BSC reward chain(s) mod(s). Once you find some of his Lua code that has io.open, io.write, io.read, io.flush, and io.close type statements in it, you'll know you've found the right ones as those are how files external from the game itself can be processed.

I believe there was another mod (which might or might not be his coding) that allowed funds to be transferred between city tiles and it likely also used an external file for the process.

[AP 3,591]

Phew ... understood, it sounds like something I do not want to get into and waste dozens of evenings trying to make it work😅

 

My idea was to kind of create a whole industry sector, meaning you need several production facilities before you can build a wind turbine. But that would not be feasable for small rural tiles and I would have wanted to make sure there is one production line in the region and that enables the player to use the content...

 

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

2 minutes ago, AP said:

Phew ... understood, it sounds like something I do not want to get into and waste dozens of evenings trying to make it work😅

Lua can be a fun challenge if you like that sort of thing, but otherwise it can be a real headache.

 

[Terring 6,476]

10 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I believe there was another mod (which might or might not be his coding) that allowed funds to be transferred between city tiles and it likely also used an external file for the process.

You mean the Regional Tracking Mod by @Daeley?

[TiepiNL 182]

4 hours ago, Terring said:

You mean the Regional Tracking Mod by @Daeley?

Actually it's Daeley BLS Shady Banking, but it uses the regional tracking mod indeed.

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

11 hours ago, Terring said:

You mean the Regional Tracking Mod by @Daeley?

7 hours ago, TiepiNL said:

Actually it's Daeley BLS Shady Banking, but it uses the regional tracking mod indeed.

Ah! Cool. That's the beauty of so many knowledgeable members here to get the right info posted.

It's been quite a few years now since I dipped my toes into the Lua coding pool and the part I remember is one of the mods by @Daeley along with a few very old posts of his here on ST which gave me the very basic understanding of how to create an external file from within Lua. (Then with lots of experimenting, I learned more.)

[Propfam 2,305]

Wish we can load external libraries, for instance JSON reader. But, I think not all libraries can work here due to the archaic version of Lua used by the game.