Return of the 3 More Questions, Son of..., Revenge of the..., 3 More Questions III...

[rsc204 21,869]

32 minutes ago, xxdita said:

The problem is that in Reader, it is impossible to know which ObjectData matches which prop or texture, and there is no way to know which one is the building itself.

The first Rep defines the object type: 

• 0x00 = Building
• 0x01 = Prop
• 0x02 = Texture

The final or 13th Rep is the IID of either the Buildings Exemplar, Prop Exemplar or Texture depending on the first Rep.

A full explanation was somewhere on the SC4D Wiki, but that gives me a blank page right now. Probably another site move related issue .

[xxdita 1,097]

You can change the orientation of any texture in Reader, but it's tricky because there's no way to easily see which texture you're working on. And without using PIMX at the same time, you don't know whether you're altering a prop, texture, or the building itself. 

The first of 13 hex values tells you exactly what you're dealing with. 0x00 is a building, 0x01 is a prop, 0x02 is a texture. These are the most common values for the first hex, though there are others. 

The second of 13 values tells you how visible this thing is. 0x00 is visible at all zooms, and is usually used for buildings, buildings as props, and base textures. 0x10 is for medium only, and 0x20 is for high only. 

So if the first hex is 0x02 (or likely 0x00000002) and the second is 0x00, then you are probably dealing with the base texture. If that second value is 0x10 or 0x20, it's probably an overlay. 

To change the orientation, you'll be adjusting the 3rd hex value. 0x00 is South, 0x01 is West, 0x02 is North, and 0x03 is East. 

 

You can change the location of props as well, but it is even trickier as you would need to figure out the actual dimensions of the prop in order to adjust the x,x-min,y, and y-min coordinates accordingly. And that's a bit more complicated than I want to get into right now. Also, unless you want to do something like put Santa & his sleigh on top of a house, or you're dealing with a massive skyscraper that had to be rendered in pieces, then you can safely ignore the z-axis completely. 

 

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

The first Rep defines the object type: 

• 0x00 = Building
• 0x01 = Prop
• 0x02 = Texture

The final or 13th Rep is the IID of either the Buildings Exemplar, Prop Exemplar or Texture depending on the first Rep.

A full explanation was somewhere on the SC4D Wiki, but that gives me a blank page right now. Probably another site move related issue .

Yeah, I think I was typing as you posted. It seems like these values could be added in Reader's XML to show more clearly, as they do in PIMX, but I have no experience editing XMLs. 

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

Edit: I didn't notice there were more replies on the next page.

I'll leave this anyhow.

 

5 hours ago, xxdita said:

The problem is that in Reader, it is impossible to know which ObjectData matches which prop or texture, and there is no way to know which one is the building itself.

The building is easy cause it's the only one with 0x00000000 in the first rep:

^ Then those with rep 1 having 0x00000001 are standard props, 0x00000002 are textures, and 0x00000004 are timed props.

And although way too much work to decipher by hand, three of the reps control the x, y, and z positioning.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,451]

It's always been my philosophy that when the solution is more problematic than the problem, live with the problem. That Philosophy is what's kept me from breaking a few noses over the years.

While your advice was way more than generous, it's way over my head, skill-wise. I'm just a simple puzzle maker. I don't make the pieces. I'm wondering if lots could be made partially transparent so they can overhang each other? Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of overcrowded residential, but it could save zoning space. I wish somebody would have made some how-to videos for some of these apps. (hint, hint) Alas, all I can find are vids on how to increase pop., not make it smaller.

Well, that was last weeks dead end street. This week I'm trying to find out how to use the DAMN. I'm as far as chapter 3 right now-

And, as usual, nothing is working. Expect more questions.

[rsc204 21,869]

On 05/01/2020 at 3:28 AM, CorinaMarie said:

0x00000004 are timed props

0x04 is actually Flora. There is no special ID for timed props, they use either 0x01 or 0x04 depending on which type they are.

There are also codes for Land/Water constraints (perhaps that's 0x03 or 0x05, I forget) and Transit Enabling (0x07). Some others exist but weren't ever coded to work with the game, unfinished/abandoned features or whatnot.

21 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

And, as usual, nothing is working. Expect more questions.

The basics of DAMN are simple enough to work out, just start with a very small group of lots and test them out. Provided that works, you should be able to expand from there. However, due to the way DAMN must work, it needs to be in a very specific location in relation to your SC4 install to work. Furthermore, if you do not run SC4 by clicking a shortcut, or if that shortcut doesn't contain the correct "Start In" path, DAMN simply won't be loaded when starting SC4. Both of those issues can be solved/worked-around by using a modified version of DAMN which was discussed here. Most typically this affects Steam users, but I'd imagine both Origin and GoG (where used with the Galaxy Launcher), would also suffer the same.

Once you've got DAMN itself loading and functioning, adding lots to it's menu is a reasonably friendly affair using one of the GUI based tools. Beware though there are a couple different versions out there and they aren't the same. I've barely done more than take a sniff at DAMN myself, so can't really go into too much detail here.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,451]

I am right here with the DAMN install:

Part 3 - Setting up your own menus

At the bottom of the main window you see four large buttons. We don't need the 'Installer' anymore, we're done with that. The 'Options' and 'Extras' - again, leave them alone until you are familiar with the program and its basic functions.

So that leaves the 'Manager' - hit it. Lets look at the mainscreen:

 

There is no 4 buttons, there is no Manager. Nothing but a blank page. And I had to download 2 other things just to get to this point.

Found this thread https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/45893-need-help-with-damn-not-working-properly/

and it looks like the OP was going through the same situation. But I tried some of the suggestion and nothing changed. Looks like I'll be sending this mod to the trash bin pretty soon, as I have with PIM, SC4Tool, Ilives, etc.

I've got the GOG version on Win7.

[rsc204 21,869]

On 08/01/2020 at 12:18 AM, SIM-ple Jack said:

Looks like I'll be sending this mod to the trash bin pretty soon, as I have with PIM, SC4Tool, Ilives, etc.

Not trying to come across as snarky here, but in essence you've just told us that you aren't likely to stick with us to resolve the problem. In which case, it's hard to see much of an incentive to take time out of my day to assist with the problem.

iLives Reader is often given as a suggestion for people to download, but you won't get anywhere using it without some fundamental knowledge.

SC4Tool isn't particularly complex, in fact it's GUI probably makes it amongst the most user-friendly modding tools. Of course one needs to know what to change, such tools are intended just to make the process of those changes easier.

PIM is just 1,000 times better than the Maxis tools for lotting, it is not complicated to get working, provided you follow the instructions provided. Your reward is a tool that allows you to edit and create lots, even if you go no further modding, this one tool will allow for huge levels of customisation of your game.

One complication that affects most such tools, is libraries, that's very similar to dependencies. When using software to write code, in order for other machines to run it, you will need something called Runtime Libraries. Think of them as translators, allowing your machine to understand what the code is telling it to do. If selling applications, it's no problem licencing those libraries then including them, probably in an installer. But if making tools/software available for free, the per-user licence costs make including these pretty much impossible. However, that's no different from dependencies, they are rarely included in files that need them. Usually these files will be .dll files, but that's rarely how they were originally distributed, in fact common sites offering .dlls are doing so illegally. If your site focuses on such, well instantly there is a security red-flag with downloading from them. Microsoft are one of the biggest culprits behind this problem, their greed and stupidity only fuelled the problems, though they are not alone. Today Windows 10 can detect, find and install such "Runtime Libraries" for you automatically. They've also in more recent times allowed developers to re-distribute these necessary files without licencing costs. But there are heaps of legacy apps that still suffer the problem.

One general tip I'd offer for those feeling overwhelmed by things they don't understand. Take things one step at a time and ask as many questions as you need. If someone responds and you don't understand something, tell us what you don't get. It's very hard to gauge how much a given person may know, no one wants to come off as condescending, but sometimes people need everything spelt out. Others just need a nudge in the right direction.

In my youth, I worked for AOL tech support for a couple years, every now and again we would run into hopeless cases, where we literally had to get someone to ask a family member/friend to talk to us instead. But those that listened, followed instructions, gave feedback and stuck with the process, were almost always able to get their issues resolved. Likewise here, if you stick with it, someone will "hold you hand", for as long as needed to get you past any roadblocks. Nothing here involves anything complex like coding or algorithms, everything can be explained in very simple layman's terms. Don't fall for the common perception that "it's a computer, therefore I don't understand it". Computers today are like modern cars, you only need to know how to use them.

On 08/01/2020 at 12:18 AM, SIM-ple Jack said:

There is no 4 buttons, there is no Manager. Nothing but a blank page.

Pretty much the solution on that linked thread is the same one in the alternate thread I linked too. The fundamentals of this are that for SC4 to load DAMN, it must be somewhere it can see it. But, when you run an application from a shortcut, the "Start In" field denotes the default folder where the application will start to look for files. This is very important in the case of DAMN, because if that's not setup correctly, DAMN may simply not load or work at all. DAMN also needs to see your Plugins folders, in order to process them.

By default the Start in line included the "Apps" subfolder, if that's also the case for you, simply removing it from the shortcut is necessary. But you only need to do the equivalent of the following:

• Find the shortcut used to run SC4
  Assuming that's how you run the game, otherwise we've another problem to deal with first
• Right Click that and select "Properties"
• Using the example above, the Start in field would have needed the Apps folder removed, assuming it existed. I.e. change:
       "C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCity 4\Apps\"
  to
       "C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCity 4\"
• Click OK to save the changes

Whatever the parts in red above are for your shortcut, don't change this. The install location of your copy may vary, so just remove the Apps\ bit from the end, where it exists, otherwise don't mess with anything else.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,451]

On 1/9/2020 at 7:00 AM, rsc204 said:

In my youth, I worked for AOL tech support for a couple years, every now and again we would run into hopeless cases, where we literally had to get someone to ask a family member/friend to talk to us instead. But those that listened, followed instructions, gave feedback and stuck with the process, were almost always able to get their issues resolved. Likewise here, if you stick with it, someone will "hold you hand", for as long as needed to get you past any roadblocks. Nothing here involves anything complex like coding or algorithms, everything can be explained in very simple layman's terms. Don't fall for the common perception that "it's a computer, therefore I don't understand it". Computers today are like modern cars, you only need to know how to use them.

Pretty much the solution on that linked thread is the same one in the alternate thread I linked too. The fundamentals of this are that for SC4 to load DAMN, it must be somewhere it can see it. But, when you run an application from a shortcut, the "Start In" field denotes the default folder where the application will start to look for files. This is very important in the case of DAMN, because if that's not setup correctly, DAMN may simply not load or work at all. DAMN also needs to see your Plugins folders, in order to process them.

By default the Start in line included the "Apps" subfolder, if that's also the case for you, simply removing it from the shortcut is necessary. But you only need to do the equivalent of the following:

• Find the shortcut used to run SC4
  Assuming that's how you run the game, otherwise we've another problem to deal with first
• Right Click that and select "Properties"
• Using the example above, the Start in field would have needed the Apps folder removed, assuming it existed. I.e. change:
       "C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCity 4\Apps\"
  to
       "C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCity 4\"
• Click OK to save the changes

Whatever the parts in red above are for your shortcut, don't change this. The install location of your copy may vary, so just remove the Apps\ bit from the end, where it exists, otherwise don't mess with anything else.

Thank you. I need a good a**-chewing from time to time. I've already given up on trying to alter lots to lower the pop. I'll stick to my old workaround. It's less labor intensive and my brain won't hurt so much.

This is what I have going on DAMN. As you can see, the game is not in (x86) Is it supposed to be? That's where GOG put it, not me.

Tutorial videos would really save a lot of question being asked.