Lot Editor Not Responding due to Plugins folder

[luvs2draw 295]

Hello Everyone,

I searched the forum's and couldn't find where to post my question.

First, I am running Windows 10 64 bit, Direct X version 12, Processor: AMD A10-8700P Radeon R6 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G (4 CPUs)-1.8 GHz. Memory: 8192 MB RAM

The problem I am having is Lot Editor will not run with Folders in my Game Plugins Folder. If I remove the Plugins folder, Lot Editor will start fine, then I add the Plugin Folder back, Lot Editor will not start. In Task Manager it shows the Lot Editor " Not Responding ". I have to end the Task to close the Program. I am running the Lot Editor in Compatibility mode " Windows XP (Service Pack 3). I also have the "Run this program as an Administrator" selected. Do I have to make a separate folder, Like in PIM-X ( which I have never used) and only add the Plugins I want to work with? 

I haven't used Lot Editor since around 2011 on a system running Windows 7 and it worked fine with folders in my Game Plugin Folder.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

 

[Cyclone Boom 16,851]

Hi luvs2draw,

My first thought is with the total combined size of your Plugins. The greater the quantity of content loaded into the Lot Editor, the more demand which is put on the program, which may lead to unresponsiveness. Just like upon starting SC4, the Maxis LE sequentially loads both Plugins folders in their entirety. This is from the one in Documents and likewise the internal Program Files Plugins (from the directory path where the game is installed by default). For this reason and given you've found the LE runs fine without any custom content, I do suspect it'll be a case of only including the items you wish to work with, and temporarily moving any other subfolders outside to a safe place.

The PIM-X tool you mention does include its own Lot Editor, which upon startup allows only selected subfolders to be loaded into memory. This is convenient because others would then be ignored without needing to move anything, and therefore preventing the full contents (of the content) from being needlessly processed.

If pursuing this however, you may find it'll take a fair bit of getting used to. In comparison to the Maxis LE, the interface relies almost exclusively on keyboard commands.

On a related note...

For the purpose of lotting in general, it's a good piece of advice to only include dependencies in your Plugins which you intend to place on a lot. That way it ensures no other props and/or texture packs would ever be functionally required, since only those present in Plugins would be loaded into the LE and available for use in the menu listings.

I hope this helps get it working for you.

(I've just renamed the thread title to be ever so slightly more descriptive for all the Googlers out there.)

[luvs2draw 295]

Thanks for the quick response to my question Cyclone Boom. You always give a clear answer to the problems I have. I'll play around with both Programs. I just wished there was an easier way to do it. I appreciate you renaming the thread, it was a little bit late when I posted the question. 

Thank you again for the quick response.

[rsc204 21,806]

6 hours ago, luvs2draw said:

In Task Manager it shows the Lot Editor " Not Responding ". I have to end the Task to close the Program.

Did you know that this is what Windows displays when it is simply busy? People used to complain they didn't know if applications had crashed or not, so MS made it so "Not Responding" would appear way too easily. When you open task manager, right click the Lot Editor and select Goto Process. Here you can see the CPU % and RAM usage in realtime for the application. If the RAM figure is not static or the CPU is running, you know the app hasn't actually crashed. Just wait 5-10m and I bet you that the LE will eventually come to life. It's simply loading everything upon startup, the exact process the main SC4 game needs to do before it starts. So expect a similar loading time at the very least.

I would however be remiss if I didn't point out that lotting in such a manner comes with drawbacks. Sure, everything is there for you to place on lots, which may seem convenient. That also means that the list of props and textures may be downright huge, making things harder to find. You may find that the sheer number of objects loaded causes the application to run slowly. But the #1 reason for not using your entire plugins is that it makes it difficult to track the dependencies a lot needs to function. If you are only lotting for your own personal use, that's not such a big deal, at least so long as you never need to work it out later. For example if you re-install SC4 and didn't have a backup of the same Plugins folder/dependencies as now. But if you ever release such lots, you'll spend more time than makes sense tracking dependencies.

Personally I can't recommend PIM-X (X-Tool/SC4 PIM) enough, it will force you to load a minimised set of dependencies though. This is because the application does some advanced stuff and loading entire plugins suites is not possible within the limits of the resources the application can utilise. The main reasons why I'd recommend trying it are as follows:

• It's both the Plugin Manager and a Lot Editor combined into one single tool.
• Advanced tools for making prop families/timed props more easily.
• Visual props/texture lists.
• The ability to save lots inside of .DAT files, in locations other than the root of Plugins and without messing with custom icons.

There is much, much more besides, obviously it's a different way of working, but it's a more powerful and complete tool. Designed by a modder to make up for the shortcomings with the tools provided by Maxis.

[luvs2draw 295]

rsc204 I believe I will probably us the PIM-X instead of Lot Editor. Been looking at it a little this morning and it does seem a lot easier and handier than Lot Editor. I can select what Plugins I want to use and don't have to set up a separate folder to put my Plugins into. I just want to create some custom content to use in the game. I was able to make some when I was playing the game on a Windows 7 system in Lot Editor. Was lucky to still to have them after my computer went belly up and then had an Ext. Hard Drive crashed and thought I had lost them. I installed the hard drive from the computer that went belly up into a computer that would run but had a bad hard drive. I was able to retrieve a lot of the  SC4 items I had on that hard drive along with the Lot's I had created.

Thank you for the info you sent.

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

As someone who's only made one single lot in PIM-X so far I highly suggest going thru the step by step tutorial in its User Guide. It's not initially intuitive, but seems quite powerful overall and well worth the learning curve needed to use it. Also, jump down to page 64 & 65 of said Guide to find the keyboard hotkeys.