Need help Installing SHK parking MOD / Rendering Grayscale Maps

[46377mike 11]

I already know pretty well on how to  install mods but if someone could take a moment to refresh my memory on how to install the SHK Parking lot mod along with a couple of others that would be great and much appreciated.

  Edited December 15, 2018 by 46377mike  
did not finish

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Based on your first statement I'll presume you know they go into the Plugins folder under SimCity 4 which is in your Documents folder.

I first went to what I believe is the main part of the mod and saw it also lists two dependencies as follows:

• KOSC SP Modular Parking - Base Set 1.3
  • SuperSHK MEGA Parking Textures 1.0.1
  • SHK Parking Pack 1.2

Then I pulled out the folders from those 3 zip files and arranged them like so in my Plugins folder:

^ For this quick test I left the Documentation folder in there, but you'd really want to move that outside of plugins.

 

Then in the game I peeked in the transportation menu and found the various entrances:

 

Having plopped those I then peeked in the parks menu to find all the other pieces:

 

And here's some, but not all, of the stuff plopped:

 

Now, I do confess to never having used these before (though I'd been intending to get them for a long time) so if I've missed any parts then rest assured the experts will be along to add to or correct anything I've said.

 

[46377mike 11]

Thank you soooo mucho!!

[46377mike 11]

Can i ask you another question? Its not related to this but im pretty sure its a simple answer.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 minute ago, 46377mike said:

Can i ask you another question?

You just did! (And the answer is: Yes.)

[46377mike 11]

 

Lmao..

i just installed the SC4 datanode mod. Im showing a lot of dependencies missing for certain things..

is there a way to download all the dependecies all at once?

is the SIMTROPOLIS CD's worth it?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

There are some things with Datanode where it's not 100% intuitive. (Just saying it may or may not be showing what you suppose you are seeing.)

No. Unfortunately there isn't an option anywhere to download all deps in one fell swoop.

Our CDs are a convenience item as a gift for donating. The donation part is really the intention as it keeps the site's bills paid and creates a place for anyone to get answers as well as download content from the STEX. Dirk, the site owner and webmaster, recently gave me all 3 discs as a token of appreciation for things I do here. They are nice to have, but I'll be honest here: They will not solve the need for dependencies. What they are is a collection of the best items from the STEX for the years when they were complied. Items on the discs will often still require you to get the deps from the sites where they are hosted.

I don't want to talk you out of donating as that's our lifeblood for keeping ST going. On the other hand, I don't want to mislead you into what you would be getting.

[46377mike 11]

im going to donate either way...  Getting back into this game to stay home and save$..lol   So donating to you guys would actually save me $.

Thanks for all your help

[46377mike 11]

Last but not least...lol

Installing maps.

is SC4 mapper better than Teraforming mod ?

a quick refresher of how to install would be great! Im so ready to start playing already.  This old school modding is trouble..lol

 

[rsc204 21,808]

SC4 Terraformer is much more powerful as a tool, but if you aren't creating or modifying maps, I'd go with SC4 Mapper If all you want is to make downloaded ones work, it's a much simpler program to use.

Installation isn't terribly difficult, the main thing you need to take care of is ensuring any .DLL files necessary for it to run are present. That said, looking at the support thread/download description, it doesn't note this as a necessary step. So just give the installer a whirl, if you encounter any problems, we can help you through them.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 minute ago, 46377mike said:

Installing maps.

If you are going to render from grayscale images then you can see my thread here. (It's about creating them, but in the instructions is the bit about what to do with a grayscale image.)

 

4 minutes ago, 46377mike said:

is SC4 mapper better than Teraforming mod ?

Here I won't be much help. I went from my above map creation with grayscales to C coding modifications of a fractal map generator program. However, @Cyclone Boom has answered a similar question here.

[46377mike 11]

Again, thanks a lot guys..

I only get a config file and a JPG.file.   When i try to load them it cant find it.  Im i missing something.

Im using SC4 Mapper

 

  Edited December 16, 2018 by 46377mike  
did not finish

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

18 minutes ago, 46377mike said:

I only get a config file and a JPG.file.

How about a linky to the file so we can check? It sounds more like it's intended to be rendered with the in game tools. (Steps for that are included in my guide I linked above.) Where mine says it'll be a .bmp image, just browse for the .jpg. (Those aren't as high quality for this, but it'll be fine.)

[46377mike 11]

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Ok. That'll be one from before those other mapping programs existed. (Or, most likely so.)

Here's the instructions from my thread I linked. Just pretend where I say and show Gray_1.bmp you use Twin Cities.jpg.

 

1. In SimCity 4, open the new region you created.

2. Press the magic key combination of Shift+Ctrl+Alt+r. This brings up the file selection box.

3. Drill down to where you saved your grayscale image file and select Gray 1.bmp then click Ok.

 

4. Now wait while the map is rendered. You will see Creating New City like this:

 

Edit: Oh, and be sure to drop that config.bmp in the new region folder in place of the generic one the game creates.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

1 hour ago, 46377mike said:

I only get a config file and a JPG.file.

Checking the "Twin Cities" map you linked to, this appears to be a grayscale image which the game supports as a standard render using the Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R method @CorinaMarie posted above. It's very easy and the only thing to remember is to not switch focus while it completes. I've done that before and there are missing tiles as a result. It does work with both BMPs and JPGs providing they're in grayscale format (which supports height levels of 0-255).

In terms of Mapper, it also supports 8-bit grayscales and can render then too. There's no advantage however to using an external program, and Mapper really only becomes powerful for handling the higher detail images (for greater accuracy, especially with DEM data maps), which are commonly in SC4M format.

Here's an explanation of those advanced formats quoting from the User Guide:

Quote

• SC4M is the file format that was made for having a 0.1m precision when exporting the region in SC4Terraformer. The SC4M not only store the elevations of your region, but also store the config.bmp used, and can store a HTML file that will be display when another user will import it
• PNG is the only 16 bit greyscale file format that can be read/write by Photoshop CS. This was originaly made for allow people to use image editors to edit the region.
• RGB is a normal RGB format, exactly BMP, that store the elevation following a specific scheme. It was made to get around the limitation of the 16 bit png that only Photoshop CS can read/write.

 

If you'd like, I can explain the steps to render in Mapper. Otherwise for the sake of functionality, the standard method is perfectly viable for grayscales.

[46377mike 11]

4 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Checking the "Twin Cities" map you linked to, this appears to be a grayscale image which the game supports as a standard render using the Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R method @CorinaMarie posted above. It's very easy and the only thing to remember is to not switch focus while it completes. I've done that before and there are missing tiles as a result. It does work with both BMPs and JPGs providing they're in grayscale format (which supports height levels of 0-255).

In terms of Mapper, it also supports 8-bit grayscales and can render then too. There's no advantage however to using an external program, and Mapper really only becomes powerful for handling the higher detail images (for greater accuracy, especially with DEM data maps), which are commonly in SC4M format.

Here's an explanation of those advanced formats quoting from the User Guide:

 

If you'd like, I can explain the steps to render in Mapper. Otherwise for the sake of functionality, the standard method is perfectly viable for grayscales.

Explaining how to render in Mapper would help.  

And im having a problem opening up my DOCUMENTS folder through the SHIFT/CTRL/Alt/R.  

it just wont open. my files are in there

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 minute ago, 46377mike said:

And im having a problem opening up my DOCUMENTS folder through the SHIFT/CTRL/Alt/R.  

Did you get the popup box in the region screen? And are you by chance using a Mac? (There's an annoying workaround for finding the file if so.)

[46377mike 11]

Nope, im using a PC. And yes im getting the pop up box just cant search all my folders

 

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

1 hour ago, 46377mike said:

Nope, im using a PC. And yes im getting the pop up box just cant search all my folders

I suspect the reason here is with SC4 being designed for Windows XP systems, this is the Documents and Settings folder which was in the root of C:\ drive. Checking here on Windows 7 and clicking this won't open for me either, and inside the location there's just an inaccessible hidden system folder or symbolic link.

As follows when seeing the Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R menu:

Attempting to open this and nothing happens.

See the 01-Maps directory at the top there? This is a custom folder I've created directly in my C:\ drive for the purpose of rendering grayscale maps using the standard method. Having the "01" at the start allows it to be listed up top for convenience, and actually having the grayscale image inside one's Regions folder (or the region itself) isn't necessary. Once running the render from clicking the OK button, it will output the saved city files into the folder of the currently opened region.

Scrolling down the list though, it's possible to navigate to your Users folder.

As follows:

 

Click into this, then your username profile folder, followed by Documents.

At this location for SC4:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\SimCity 4

 

2 hours ago, 46377mike said:

Explaining how to render in Mapper would help.

Cool. I'll get onto posting the steps for you in Mapper sometime tomorrow.

To save you some time for now (the render in game would take in excess of 15 minutes to complete), I've rendered the Twin Cities map using Mapper, then zipped it up for you and uploaded to the temporary storage site WeTransfer.

As follows:

https://we.tl/t-tgS0bR0UTj  (70.9 MB)

(Link expires in 7 days on December 23rd.)

When copying the folder into Regions, opening in the game and you'll notice the tiles appear to be shaded in unusual colours. This is just due to the way Mapper does the exports, and once saving each of the tiles it updates the snapshot correctly to represent the actual cities as previewed.

Here's a sample pic from the region view to demonstrate:

 

One thing I notice is how there's some parts of the terrain which are very shallow (like over there on the left side).

This is seemingly due to how the grayscale is composed, and not something which went wrong with the render. Short of editing the image using a program like GIMP or Paint.NET to adjust those parts by hand (through trial and error), it might be worth raising or lowering these areas in each tile as a workaround. Though this being a 16x16 large tiled region (256 total), that admittedly would be a lengthy and involving task.

Anyhow, I hope this helps get you started at least in some way.

[46377mike 11]

Ok people i got it!  Been playing for 6 hours already and loving it!

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

10 hours ago, 46377mike said:

Ok people i got it!  Been playing for 6 hours already and loving it!

Sweet! Glad to hear it.

 

20 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

I'll get onto posting the steps for you in Mapper sometime tomorrow.

So, a little later than planned, here goes...

 

Tutorial: Rendering a Grayscale Map using SC4 Mapper

Step 1 - Select Image Type

With SC4Mapper installed and opened, click the Create Region button which will display this dialog:

The other options relate to the different formats, and SC4M will be a common one which benefits from the greater accuracy in height elevations. For the purpose of standard 8-bit grayscale maps though, choose the highlighted Grayscale image option.

 

Step 2 - Choose Image and Config.bmp File

Here's the main step being the dialog asking for the image location, so then the program knows what to import:

In the first "Filename" box is where to browse for the JPG file, and in this example I'd copied the Twin Cities.jpg into Regions, though it can go wherever you'd like. It's also possible to import a BMP file providing it's likewise in the 8-bit grayscale format (with supported heights of 0-255).

The second option for "Scale factor" determines whether or not the height elevations should be made more or less extreme than the default. Usually this can be left alone, but there are certain cases where it can come in useful or be required. Some maps include a height file which would be placed in one's Plugins folder during a standard in game render. So this scale factor option is the Mapper equivalent, seeing as it performs the rendering independently from SC4 being its own program.

Choose the Config.bmp file to be used also, and this controls the sizes of each city tile. If none is provided, it'll revert to all large tiles.

If useful, SC4Mapper does include its own editor as I previously described in this tutorial, so this can easily be edited later. Although once developing on a region, the tiles within will need to fit the allocated area where they reside, and existing tiles can only be later re-imported into those of the same size. If editing the config and saving as a new instance of a region, it will make all of the tiles blank again with just the terrain (and no development on them).

To modify the config before importing into Mapper, it's simple enough using an image editor as this article explains (and there's 2 videos in the comments).

The "Specify size" option represents the number of small tiles in the imported image. As previewed above, this shows as 64x64, which is from 16x4 with being 16 large tiles, and 4 smaller ones inside each. Unless wishing to change it, this can be safely left alone as per the detected default.

 

Step 3 - Load the Map

Click OK and then the map will be previewed:

Here it can be seen with there being the 16 large tiles represented by the blue borders. The white gridlines are the possible location of small tiles, and that's where it adds up to 64x64 in this which is a completely square region map.

To render the region for use in SC4, click the Save Region button at the top.

 

Step 4 - Name the Region and Save

By default it'll choose the name of the image file, but this can be changed as you wish, and the region folder will be named accordingly:

Click OK to begin the process of rendering.

 

Step 5 - Render Progress and Completion

The above dialog will reveal the status of each of the tiles being saved. This may take a minute or so, and depending on the size of the region where a large one has more tiles to render. Also the complexity of the terrain may also have an influence.

At this point, the game can be loaded and the region will appear for selection (remember those region colours will go once saving each tile).

And that concludes this mini-tutorial. Pretty much the same steps apply for SC4M and the other image types as well if you wish to explore those too.

By the way...
Seeing as this thread has diverged slightly from the original topic (which is completely fine), I've just renamed it accordingly to help anyone else searching for a similar answer.

[peek-a-boo 29]

Hmmm! Let try this way! maybe I'll get this one.