[Solved] Lot Editor not functioning with Steam SC4

[CorinaMarie 29,576]

@WannGLondon

There is an interesting feature of PIM-X which I discovered by accident and that is it will allow more than one base texture per cell of your creation.

For my very fist lot, I was testing how various base textures would look and so I kept adding different ones. I was under the mistaken impression the program was replacing one with the other. Later while playing in the game I could not figure out why the textures would randomly change based on zoom level or rotation. @Cyclone Boom investigated my lot and figured out I had a pile of base textures. He then removed all except the one I really wanted. This might also apply to overlay textures, but thankfully I only added one per cell so those didn't need any changes.

I can only presume this is an advanced program feature with a purpose I don't understand. I mention it in case you accidentally do it too and then you are later trying to figure out what's going on in the game.

[rsc204 21,806]

18 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

This might also apply to overlay textures, but thankfully I only added one per cell so those didn't need any changes.

Indeed it does, if you take a look at the Maxis 3x3 Plaza, you'll see they have used multiple overlays there, they did similar on other lots too. So this actually works in the Maxis LE as well as PIM-X, because it's something Maxis very much intended. Why this works for base textures too, I guess it's just programmed to add them identically to Overlays.

You do have to watch out, because if textures are on a lot, but are not loaded when starting PIM-X, it's very easy to duplicate them.

As you've found, when multiple textures exist, no system exists to order or prioritise one over the others. So they end up fighting with each other, seen especially when rotating/zooming since it refreshes the display. You can observe how this behaviour works on the 3x3 Plaza, it's minor graphical weirdness at best. To avoid it, only use multiple Overlay Textures where both do not use the same pixels or if that's not possible, extract all the textures and re-combine them in a photo editor to make a new single Overlay.

[AP 3,587]

On 24/05/2019 at 11:13 PM, CorinaMarie said:

When it installs (on a 64 bit OS) it is checking in the registry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Maxis\SimCity 4 for the value stored in InstallDir. If you've had more than one install version, it might be getting confuzzled.

 

I seem to be running into this problem now, when I want to execute the LE installer.

I did not have any registry entries in the suggeted folder and tried adding this required one myself, but I assume it is not as easy as that...
could you let me know what this has to look like?

[rsc204 21,806]

Have you tried running the installer as Administrator? Because it looks to me as if the install literally can’t read (access) it, rather than being unable to find the right string. In theory if it can read that string, it should be able to find and verify your .exe exists, which should allow installation to continue. 

[Cyclone Boom 16,852]

Just adding to what rsc204 says...

In case it's any help to verify, here's a pic of my registry entries for the game:
 

 

Also should it be worthwhile adding any of these entries, I'll attach the .reg file of the above:

HKLM_Software_Wow6432Node_Maxis_SimCity 4.reg

(This can be opened in Notepad or any plain text editor to modify if needed.)

[AP 3,587]

Excellent, another problem solved!
I just missed the space between "Install" and "Dir".

That works as well now! - getting close to having my development setup back up and running!

Thanks a lot!

[A.M_MAN 0]

I really hope that this is the same problem or issue that you guys also discussing in this topic. I'm done downloaded the SC4 deluxe version on Steam and installed on my windows 11 PC, then I done installed the Lot Editor and once I try to running it, the app won't work like it should be, unresponsive, and only show a trouble like this image down here (continuously showing a random tab)

Can you guys please help me out to fix this issue