Raymond's Newbie Thoughts

[Wiimeiser 444]

1 hour ago, BartonThinks said:

However, this would only allow you to transition from one park to the next along straight paths of a fixed-width, and the grass transitions wouldn't be able to handle things like curves and corners. If you want to allow for a wider range of transitions, that could take a lot more work, as well as some advance planning.

In terms of paths, between the SFBT and Paeng paths transitions they're all straight pieces already, so that's fine. The widths are different, though. BSC Parks paths appear to be the same width as the SFBT variable wealth and prefab paths, so that's an easy enough transition. The SFBT Sand Parks and Paeng Parks are wider, and are noticeably different widths though very similar. If I get the chance to load up the game today I'll see if I can get a screenshot.

[BartonThinks 3,416]

29 minutes ago, Wiimeiser said:

In terms of paths, between the SFBT and Paeng paths transitions they're all straight pieces already, so that's fine. The widths are different, though. BSC Parks paths appear to be the same width as the SFBT variable wealth and prefab paths, so that's an easy enough transition. The SFBT Sand Parks and Paeng Parks are wider, and are noticeably different widths though very similar. If I get the chance to load up the game today I'll see if I can get a screenshot.

I'm taking a look at the textures now. One thing I didn't realize is that the BSC Parks system also contains a mix of different path textures (I've only used Paeng's parks in my own cities). Also, the BSC parks use the same system as Paeng's park set, where the base texture is used for the style of path, and then the grass texture + path edges are an overlay texture.

That makes things a bit more complicated, since by my count you'd need to make at least 23 textures:

• One or more textures to transition grass-only areas between the two styles of grass textures
• One path transition overlay texture that includes a grass transition, a path edge transition, and a way to accommodate the two different widths of paths.
• 21 separate base textures to accommodate each of the different path texture transitions you would need (this is the seven BSC path textures multiplied by the three Paeng textures)

The only really tricky texture would be the path transition (it's the one texture I wouldn't trust myself to make). But extracting the textures, creating the 21 transitions, converting them back to FSH files, and then lotting all of the different path transitions would take a chunk of time.

 

[rivit 3,391]

Yes guys - thats exactly what's happening - look up the term Texture Atlas for a general description of the technique - its a way of compressing lots of textures into a bigger texture.

All users of the textures have their models point only to the FSHid and UV coordinates of the bits they need. Maxis used it for a lot of props which are essentially tiny to make most use of 256x256 FSH and also for low zooms which are small renditions of bigger things. They must have had a dedicated tool to do this because each S3D needs to be have UVs adjusted and the whole stay consistent.  so n Models -> m FSH and all UVs need to be consistent.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

The project is done temporarily, Have some fun to relax with a Hobbit style little house.

[BartonThinks 3,416]

2 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

The project is done temporarily, Have some fun to relax with a Hobbit style little house.

Very charming! Though now that you've posted one screenshot, you're going to have a handful of people demanding an entire village! 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@BartonThinks Thank you Barton! Still need some little stuffs around, and some leafs and a straw roof, so it's indeed a Medieval house, I will try to let you see the others tomorrow.

[Propfam 2,288]

8 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

The project is done temporarily, Have some fun to relax with a Hobbit style little house.

Nice job!

[Wiimeiser 444]

12 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Cool! Now I wonder if we'll get MLP houses, since they're fairly similar... Would be nice to mix in with random residential...

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Thanks my friends, @Wiimeiser I never thought of it's kind of MLP (my little pony, right?) style. Ha-ha, @Terring may like it as well, Anyway, Today's progress:

The only problem is that it would be too small in game. Zoom 5

[Terring 6,473]

I'll agree with @Wiimeiser, this house with the bright colors look like a typical cottage from Ponyville.

[rsc204 21,808]

On 18/06/2021 at 4:07 AM, Barroco Hispano said:

@Raymond7cn Do you think it is possible to reduce the occupant size of the roads? It would be interesting to be able to put mmp's on the roads. 

On 18/06/2021 at 9:33 AM, Raymond7cn said:

@Barroco Hispano, I just made a Simple test, I modified all the can-am Lots, replace the RKT to a flat road model I made, set their Occupant size to 0.1, 0.3, 0.1, change all of their Boundaries (x1y1x2y2) in Lotconfig to 0x0080000, But still couldn't plant MMPs on the road, Maybe I lost something somewhere, Well, I suddenly thought of one thing while doing this, Why don't we overhang the MMPs?

So far as I know the Occupant Size simply isn't a Property that exists for or effects game networks, there is no way to prevent these area's being 'reserved'. The simplest solution here is always just to T21 pieces onto the network, anything else comes with drawbacks and doesn't work very elegantly.

Overhanging MMPs would work, but due to the random rotation selection of MMP'd props, you couldn't know in which direction they will offset. Of course with a multi-stage MMP you could keep clicking until it rotated and thus was offset correctly, but I fail to see a scenario where a T21 wouldn't be a better and more user-friendly choice.

On 18/06/2021 at 3:33 AM, Raymond7cn said:

@Terring

I have some weird thoughts today, Sorry that if they're ignorant, since I almost know nothing about NAM, 

1.  Can a Monorail or Elevated Rail be laid in the middle of Avenue?

2.  I saw there was "follow_rail = true or follow_road = true," in generator when I was learning from Cori. May I ask a stupid question, What's the nature of Powerlines? I just thought it's kind of similar to network, Is there a "follow_powerlines = true,"?

As mentioned, El-Rail over Streets, Roads, Avenue and RD-4 are all currently possible. It should be possible to do likewise with Monorail or Rail, just no one has made such pieces at this time.

On 19/06/2021 at 7:51 PM, Raymond7cn said:

Ah, Now my friends, you have to believe that I'm still quite a Newbie!!  Thank you Barton, I really want to quit modeling a bit for learning NAM now (how to play) I have collected enough tutorials in Youtube, MGB's tutorial comes first.

Now… Another Newbie's discovery:

@CorinaMarie @Cyclone Boom Please tell (laugh at) me I'm the last one to know this trick, no bothering with S3D modifying any more.

We are writing at the same time, Nick, Yes, how foolish I am.  Do you like that Batman light?

You can manipulate all aspects of either S3D models or their applied textures manually using the values in Reader, but it requires a very good knowledge of math to do anything complex. It looks like you've reduced all the "Groups" of the S3D to the same Vert/Index/Prim/Mat group? Something tells me this probably isn't right, there are times you can condense these values like this, but for exported models (BATs), that will rarely be true.

Say you have three groups, that is three separate model parts that come together as a single model. If all three used the same FSH texture, then setting them all to the same Mat (material) group would be fine. But the other data like the number of Verticies and Primitives is unlikely to actually be the same, which might actually cause problems.

I've some unreleased tutorials that get into this kind of S3D editing, if you are interested then send me a PM and I'll forward what I have. It also covers some basics on RUL2 and transit modding.

On 19/06/2021 at 7:52 PM, BartonThinks said:

It's a big menu to navigate! Also, the puzzle pieces kind of make it look like you can't create intersections. I kept hitting "tab" looking for an intersection puzzle piece, only to realize that I could actually drag the road through the avenue.

That's because the Ave/RD-4 network is not a true puzzle-based network, it's actually FLEX based. There are many FLEX pieces in NAM that require each individual part is plopped, but the key difference is how they interact with other networks. Flann posted the tutorial showing how this network works, by dragging connections using the road tools you can make a large number of intersections, it's reasonably flexible. I don't know of any true Puzzle Pieces (like the older El over Road/Street), which incorporate any flexibility whatsoever, they are static once plopped and can not be changed.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Sorry for the late reply my friends, These days I was busy with my son's graduation of his elementary school. busy, busy.

@Terring I hope you don't mind it may not look like much when I finish it,  Not very satisfied with the thatched roof, Anyway, Stay tuned my friend.

On 6/24/2021 at 7:32 PM, rsc204 said:

I've some unreleased tutorials that get into this kind of S3D editing, if you are interested then send me a PM and I'll forward what I have. It also covers some basics on RUL2 and transit modding

Thank you so much for your professional explanation, Robin,  I can't wait to send a PM to you. couple days ago, I tried to learn some knowledge of NAM, It's a tutorial I couldn't recall where I got it, it contains 7 main parts: (you must know this)

1.  Individual Network RULs

2.  IntersectionSolutions RUL

3.  IntersectionOrdering RUL

4.  RuleOverrides RUL

5.  INI Network & Bridges

6.  Paths

7.  Type, Group, Instance IDs

I stopped at the very beginning(part1-offset table), too professional to me, But I know that you never disappoint me whenever I learn from you. BTW, I just found that you have published some new tutorials about modding and new features of NAM in Youtube, Couldn't wait to learn them as well.

As for the S3D in Reader, you're absolutely right there, Actually it's my fault due to too excited at then, so I didn't cover the previous posts (try to use LUA but to no avail)and also that's not a correct and complete editting, Anyway, I'll revise them after I learn more from you (PM).

Forgive me for sending PM tomorrow, Kind of late in my time zone now.

Yours Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[rsc204 21,808]

No rush, I’m many miles from my PC enjoying good beer and some sunshine right now.

[Propfam 2,288]

On 25/6/2021 at 11:08 PM, Raymond7cn said:

Sorry for the late reply my friends, These days I was busy with my son's graduation of his elementary school. busy, busy.

@Terring I hope you don't mind it may not look like much when I finish it,  Not very satisfied with the thatched roof, Anyway, Stay tuned my friend.

Thank you so much for your professional explanation, Robin,  I can't wait to send a PM to you. couple days ago, I tried to learn some knowledge of NAM, It's a tutorial I couldn't recall where I got it, it contains 7 main parts: (you must know this)

1.  Individual Network RULs

2.  IntersectionSolutions RUL

3.  IntersectionOrdering RUL

4.  RuleOverrides RUL

5.  INI Network & Bridges

6.  Paths

7.  Type, Group, Instance IDs

I stopped at the very beginning(part1-offset table), too professional to me, But I know that you never disappoint me whenever I learn from you. BTW, I just found that you have published some new tutorials about modding and new features of NAM in Youtube, Couldn't wait to learn them as well.

As for the S3D in Reader, you're absolutely right there, Actually it's my fault due to too excited at then, so I didn't cover the previous posts (try to use LUA but to no avail)and also that's not a correct and complete editting, Anyway, I'll revise them after I learn more from you (PM).

Forgive me for sending PM tomorrow, Kind of late in my time zone now.

Yours Sincerely,

-- Raymond

Hope you'll be successful in the NAM journey! We'll always support you!

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@chfzdn Thank you for the encouragement! Frankly, I have very little confidence that I could, especially a Newbie who even don't know how to use NAM. All motivation I have comes from curiousness. Anyways, I'll post everything I learn here so that others who smarter than me could have a bit benefit. At least I thought it won't hurt to have some new blood for NAM team.

Cori's house has been Finished!

@mattb325 @Barroco Hispano Masters, I have learnt one more new tricks about Particle System (just PF), It's just really a torture for my comp to make those thatches.

[Terring 6,473]

That house is very cute

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

2 minutes ago, Terring said:

That house is very cute

Rapid reply! Terring, The one for you is totally different style, It's still a secret for now.

[Terring 6,473]

Cool, I like secrets

[City_Slider 2,716]

Cori will love it ;-)

... so do i :-D

[Propfam 2,288]

3 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

@chfzdn Thank you for the encouragement! Frankly, I have very little confidence that I could, especially a Newbie who even don't know how to use NAM.

Thanks!

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

8 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Cori's house has been Finished!

Raymond, I must say this is one of the cutest and most lovely little houses I've ever seen! You have such tremendous talent for design, and the details you've added including the little pink flower, the entrance door, and the thatched roof make this very quaintly beautiful. I can imagine the farm fields surrounding also.

For a fact I know Cori will absolutely adore her hobbit house too!

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

11 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Cori's house has been Finished!

That's a darling little house. So cute and eloquent!

[mattb325 28,880]

What a gorgeous little house, Raymond!

I love that you got the particle system to work...on the old pc I use for SC4 it takes up far too many resources for me to ever implement it effectively. 

[Propfam 2,288]

Lots of support's given to Raymond. I mean, he definitely deserves it. Hopefully, his skills continue to be better and better each day. I love this beautiful community. 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

You're gonna spoil me, My friends,  Thank you to all of you!

I need to (have to) quit modeling a bit, since I found a very interesting things when I wanted to learn how to use Robin's splendid UnderBridge Set.

Then I even didn't know why, but I got this weird thing, two brushes.

Will delve into this a bit, I just couldn't help whenever seeing some weird stuffs.

[City_Slider 2,716]

Go ahead my Friend. The are many Secrets, that would be find... some Days :-P

[Propfam 2,288]

16 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Then I even didn't know why, but I got this weird thing, two brushes.

Will delve into this a bit, I just couldn't help whenever seeing some weird stuffs.

Are those functioning similarly? Or, one with completely different function but for some reason forgot to change the icon and desc?

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@City_Slider Thank you Oliver, @chfzdn Actually, That's a stupid mistake I made.

As I said, I just wanted to have some fun with Robin's Underbridge Lots, But I often make a mess in flatting the Shoreline, I knew I can flat the ground with road or rail by tiles, however I was (lazy) thinking if the Level brush could be square instead of a circle, Then I went into the SimCity_1.dat with Reader, There were some terrainbrush type Exemplars:

Please note the right corner where says 'Plateau'. That's a big mistake but I wasn't aware of it at then.

Anyway, I found out the Comp1TextureID = 28F7A0E2, it's a little FSH shaped like a white circle, then I changed it to square and other shapes, but I couldn't see the changes in game. Some of you may still remember this test I made when making Colorful UI mod:

I made all FSHs in SimCity_2.dat to negative color, so I thought It should work for the brush by modifying a FSH, Then I used that method @Cyclone Boom taught me, split them into half and half and half:

It's really a tedious work but anyhow I located it finally. and with the txt of simcity_1.dat @CorinaMarie gave to me, I found that this FSH turns out:

Oh my, I overlooked this name SuperLevepBrush, That's what I was finding, Silly me!.

But I was still very interested in the square effect, along with searching:

I found that the original super Level brush is a circle shape and actually it keeps rotating if I hold the mouse, even with the Negative FSH. After I changed the value of Comp1AlignedWithMouseMoveDirection to True (default is false), The Brush stopped rotating, so the last problem was that if I could make a pattern as I desired.

But whatever I tweaked the FSH, I still couldn't figure out the pattern in it.

After many random trails, I opened this FSH in hex, Cori and CB has taught me how to do that with Reader.

But I couldn't find out this Directory ID Values = G349 in FSH_Format Wiki, I have no idea if this is a format hasn't been recognized, I tried to open it with a tool by EA:

However I still couldn't understand the meaning there, 24 bit palette, Does it mean this FSH format has some rules for program, 

You can tell that this one I made with Rivit's GoFsh its ID = G264, Anyway, That's all, I still need to make more tests, I still thought I may can achieve this goal, You can tell as below that I have gotten a neat Shoreline by one Click.

Appreciate any thoughts or advices on this, My friends, Thank you in advance.

[Wiimeiser 444]

So custom terrain brushes are possible? Square level brushes, perhaps? Maybe we could even get an ingame Harbor tool...

[Propfam 2,288]

6 hours ago, Wiimeiser said:

ingame Harbor tool

We. Need. This. We don't need to use SC4Terraformer that could destroy cities anymore just for that.