Raymond's Newbie Thoughts

CorinaMarie · May 20, 2021

10 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

1. What does [ ] represent in LUA?

That's an absolute literal string. Whatever is in between the opening [ and the closing ] are considered text even if any character(s) in between them would be control characters otherwise. As I vaguely recall, Lua has 3 ways to designate a string and that's the most assured one.

10 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

2. I saw some interesting HTMLs in game's Tutorial LUA script, I just wonder that if I could write some HTML in game, ...

I'm almost, but not quite, certain that the only HTML allowed is when creating text linkys within messages like to popup a Data View, toss a Building Tool Plop on the cursor, or (maybe) for the camera jump and zoom functions. (The "Building Tool Plop" is like when it gives you the Mayor House or Statue or Airport or such already ready to plop if you accept.)

Cyclone Boom · May 20, 2021

11 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Hiya @CorinaMarie and @Cyclone Boom, I have two short questions

I see Cori (our LUA expert) has answered about your first question, so I'll just touch on the HTML code...

11 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

2. I saw some interesting HTMLs in game's Tutorial LUA script, I just wonder that if I could write some HTML in game, If you have known it, please teach me about it, if not, Just let this Newbie do some tests and trials.

For HTML in the game data files, I believe Maxis used a modified version of the programming language, meaning it's simplified from the v3.x specification which was around at the time of development. In this case, it means the language is less complicated than it would be otherwise, because SC4 only needs to use HTML for basic functions with the text display layouts. As Cori said, it tends to only be used for game messages like in the advisor news panel. There's a few examples of how it's used in the LText files (SimCityLocale.DAT) for the language files, and so this is the way the game formats text in paragraphs and adds basic formatting with colours, font styles, and sizes.

A short example from the game's initial Getting Started tutorial:

<HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY background="sc4://image/46a006b0/14416264_html_TextBG_General.png">
<font color="##3f4967" face="Arta" size="4"> 

Welcome to the Getting Started tutorial  
<p>
<i>This tutorial is a step by step introduction to the basics of being the 
Mayor of your very own city. 
<p>
The Terraforming, Making Money, Big City, and Rush Hour tutorials are also available in the Timbuktu  Region. If you already know the basics of getting a city up and running, you might try one of those tutorials.</i>
<p>
Click the Continue button below to move forward.
</FONT></BODY>
<!-- legacy id=0xca8d8595 winflag_visible=yes winflag_enabled=yes href="sc4://action/next_tutorial" -->
</HTML>

This data is from:

2026960b = Type
ca554b03 = Group
cc102679 = Instance

An observation is Maxis didn't add closing tags for many things.

Like the <p> should have a </p> to have valid syntax in proper HTML code.

To find HTML in the LText (or LUA files), I recommend using the Find function in Reader as follows:

Find HTML - LText Search.png

This entry selected is:

2026960b = Type
8a4924f3 = Group
4a5d648f = Instance

I'll not post it here as it's really quite large (the game's Credits page), but this is the biggest HTML data that I can find inside the LText entries at least. Maybe looking through some of these examples could help to see how Maxis used the code for the text structures, and often a useful way to learn is to tweak and test code.

A resource hub I've found useful personally is the W3Schools site.

They cover a few other programming languages too like JavaScript, PHP, and SQL also. Not that any of these are useful for SC4 though, since those relate to active scripting on websites (and databases). Maybe a few things you'll find interesting though, and there is also CSS which is used for styling websites. Again though, this isn't what SC4 uses specifically, and so for modding it's only worth using as a broad reference guide. Or in other words, just taking with a pinch of salt.

mattb325 · May 21, 2021

The custom pathing produces fantastic results . I really like all of the new models...you are definitely not a newbie anymore. I think the thread will have to be changed to Raymond's Renaissance Man thoughts.

Raymond7cn · May 21, 2021

@Barroco Hispano Sorry Alejo, I totally forgot to reply you, *:blush:

May I ask an example about Building mixed with water, I just couldn't have a clear image in my head.

9 hours ago, Barroco Hispano said:

have a question, in addition to redoing the texture, how do I modify the route of the trains?

The railways we currently have are too close together.

I don't want to mislead you about the route of the trains, so I hope @rsc204 could shed some lights on this. *:blush: BTW, they are True3d models? Wow, simply Amazing!!

@SIM-ple Jack, If i understand you correctly, Jack, then you really gave me way more credit than I deserve, Thank you. *:blush:

@CorinaMarie @Cyclone Boom Thank you so much, CoriBoom™!

It turns out [ ] = " ", It's a bit different with C language, But I'm not sure, it's been 20 years, Anyway, It does explain what I saw in game's LUA. Thanks, Cori.

I have made some simple tests, CB, You're right, some complicated HTML language couldn't be recognized by the game, it's so interesting (to me *:blush: ), I want to go more far to see if i could figure out the trigger. *:8)

@mattb325 Thank you Matt, Let me keep this title for a while, since the more I learn, I really found out more and more "unknown". BTW, That overpass is in China (Shen Zhen), I even didn't know it before.

----- Future Plan -----

I have some weird thoughts when seeing CB's ring or circle, I plan to delve into "6534284a-a998d30b-00000001" which Cori taught me to see the formula of how long they persist.

CorinaMarie · May 21, 2021

35 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

Cori taught me to see the formula of how long they persist.

Keep in mind there are two places for persistness.

One is that Exemplar and the other is in the Lua code per controller.

rsc204 · May 21, 2021

Regarding an overpass with Slip Lanes, making it a TE lot would likely destabilise the RUL code, couldn’t be certain without testing really. Likewise you’d need to TE the slip lane as both Road and OWR, to mirror how they are built in NAM, I think this may prove difficult, but theoretically it could work. By far the simplest solution is to offset the model so you can place the lot one tile away and still have the overpass in-position.

Regarding routes for trains or anything else automata for that reason, you’ll need either modified or custom paths to change the defaults. If you just want the tracks on a lot to be spaced further, then make custom paths for the lot, which need to be defined in the advanced TEing options of SC4 Tools. But if you want to make this change for everything in game, you are going to have to modify many hundreds of paths at least. Scale just doesn’t work uniformly when you are pigeon-holed into using 16x16m tiles, I believe RRWs spec is pretty accurate though. I wonder if the simpler solution isn’t just making your trains a little smaller?

Raymond7cn · May 22, 2021

17 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Regarding an overpass with Slip Lanes, making it a TE lot would likely destabilise the RUL code, couldn’t be certain without testing really. Likewise you’d need to TE the slip lane as both Road and OWR, to mirror how they are built in NAM, I think this may prove difficult, but theoretically it could work. By far the simplest solution is to offset the model so you can place the lot one tile away and still have the overpass in-position.

Thank you Robin, I will keep this in mind when Lotting.

----- Newbie's little research -----

Spoiler

a = create_reward_cityplanning('031F0000')
function a.condition()
   if (game.g_population < tuning_constants.MAYOR_HOUSE_POP) then
       return [[text@aa81d58c]]
else
       return reward_state.AVAILABLE
   end
end
a.once = 1
a.timeout = tuning_constants.ADVICE_TIMEOUT_LONG
a.title = [[text@0a5d302d]]
a.message = [[text@aa5d3031]]

I found this building '031F0000', So I thought the parameter here means instance ID of building, create_reward_cityplanning('IID')

However I couldn't get them with the same approach, for example:

"create_advice_utilities('4aad47c8')"

"create_advice_cityplanning ('aa5420a3')"

"create_advice_safety("0a315420")"

..........

Then I looked it carefully, I found that it's not that simple as i thought, for instance:

a = create_advice_utilities('8a52731f')

'8a52731f' is sent to function create_advice_utilities(guid_string):

Spoiler

function create_advice_utilities(guid_string)
local a = create_advice_utilities_with_base(guid_string, nil)
return a
end

then function create_advice_utilities_with_base(guid_string, base_advice)

Spoiler

function create_advice_utilities_with_base(guid_string, base_advice)
local a = advices : create_advice(tonumber(guid_string, 16), base_advice)
a.type = advice_types . UTILITIES
return a
end

Inspired by some threads of @CorinaMarie, I got advices from CA63E2A3-4A5E8EF6-FFFCF578

Spoiler

-- Creates new advice with given GUID
-- this is the function for creating new advice structure
function advices : create_advice(guid, base)
local i = getn(self) +1
local t = {}

self = t -- add the table to the main advice repository
self . n = self . n + 1 -- update the table count

settag(t, TAG_ADVICE)

if(base == nil or type(base) ~= "table" or tag(base) ~= TAG_ADVICE)
then
base = self._base -- set the base to the 'very' base defined in this file
end

t . _base = base
t . guid = guid

return t -- tables are returned by ref
end

However I couldn't understand it by now. *:blush:

Besides, I found that this part doesn't seem to be a comment as I thought before:

--#-package:xxxxxxxx# -- package signature

With my tests, the "xxxxxxxx" seemed has to be the Instance ID of my new LUA file, but it's different from some posts in this Ooold thread:

I also found that I could write some HTML directly into LUA(by the help of CoriBoom):

Spoiler

a.message =
[[
<table>

<tr>

<td> Simtropolis News <br> by Raymond </td>

</tr>

</table>
]]

This <a href=" "> </a> can be used to jump to other windows, I wonder if it also can be used to open "https://community.simtropolis.com"

And as CB said, I thought this part "s.message = [[text@EBBE5288]]" means s.message = [the content of LTEXT EBBE5288]].

And also by CB,

"sc4://image/46a006b0/14416264_html_TextBG_General.png"

it seems I can put some images into game, 46a006b0 = Group 14416264 = Instance ? I'm also curious that if the image could come from local driver, C:\ image.jpg ?

There were also other intereting discoveries (some discarded advices), But I have to figure out the trigger first. That's all by now. *:blush:

CorinaMarie · May 22, 2021

32 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

a = create_reward_cityplanning('031F0000')

From the programming perspective, it's a coincidence for that IID. Ofc, Maxis planned it that way, but it could be any unique IID there as that's just the index to that particular advice.

Here's the relevant part:

32 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

a.message = [[text@aa5d3031]]

This is used when the condition is true. And when you look up 2026960B-6A231EA4-AA5D3031 in simcitylocale.dat to read the LText, it'll have:

Now that our population has surpassed #tuning_constants.MAYOR_HOUSE_POP#, the residents of #city# open their arms to you, Mayor. We don't want anyone concerned that you might be going elsewhere, so here's your opportunity to put down real roots: Build yourself a mayor's mansion, and slip your shoes off (after work hours, of course).<p>

Initial base cost: #building_initial_cost#<br>
Monthly cost: #building_monthly_cost#<p>

<a href="#link_id#game.tool_plop_building(building_tool_types.MAYORS_HOUSE);game.expire_advice()">Accept</a>      <a href="#link_id#game.retire_advice()">Decline</a>

Then the important part in that href linky is game.tool_plop_building(building_tool_types.MAYORS_HOUSE). This is what puts the Mayor's House plop on the cursor if you click the linky to Accept in the advisor's message.

Conversely, if the conditional is false it'll do the return [[text@aa81d58c]] and that would show this if it were displayed:

Mayor's House is not available.
Requirements:
- City Size: #tuning_constants.MAYOR_HOUSE_POP#
- Mayor Rating: #tuning_constants.MAYOR_HOUSE_MR#

Note: Things between the # symbols are how variables or functions can be looked up or executed so in this second LText, that's simply pulling the values for the city size and the mayor rating to display.

Raymond7cn · May 23, 2021

Well, Haha, My first In-game LUA *:8) :

It's still very rough and simple, but I was very excited and satisfied as seeing it, Just a little pity that couldn't access a local image yet, Many thanks for the consistent support from CoriBoom™!

CorinaMarie · May 23, 2021

3 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

I was very excited and satisfied as seeing it ...

I fully understand! Nice work. *:ohyes:

(My first Lua was just a few code lines to output a text file to the disk and I was so elated and dancing around with glee when it finally worked the first time.)

Raymond7cn · May 23, 2021

2 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

fully understand!

I knew you will, Cori, Actually, I have had many first and ecstatic moment in Simtropolis, It's just a pity that you and CB couldn't see them. *:blush: Thank you, Thank you!! I love this game!!

Yours,

-- Raymond

Cyclone Boom · May 23, 2021

Excellently done, Raymond! *:8)

It is such a satisfying feeling about getting something to work initially. There's a great sense of achievement I find also about making something function, and even basic code initially in tweaking and testing to see the results. That part is really rewarding, and it can then inspire even more complex code to be written.

Of course, we're all here to help you along your own Lua explorations as well.

14 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

It's just a pity that you and CB couldn't see them.

No worries, and we're just really happy for anything you achieve and create. The wonderful platform SC4 provides makes all this possible.

Raymond7cn · May 23, 2021

@Cyclone Boom Thank you CB, Frankly, by doing these, I just wanted to take back some stuffs which I lost in hospital.

Inspired by your Circle (generator I learnt from Cori, tweaked mikeseith's work ).

I'm going to make Tractors…

Barroco Hispano · May 24, 2021

@Raymond7cn This is what I mean

Raymond7cn · May 24, 2021

50 minutes ago, Barroco Hispano said:

@Raymond7cn This is what I mean

Ah, I stared at the sea for a while, I thought i got it, I never consider it carefully with water before, Thank you Alejo, You might want to post it into here:

Raymond7cn · May 24, 2021

I thought they are the Wild West, Turbosquid is a good site, Though it sells expensive goods, however the reference pics (even 360° and structure line) are Free! I'm going to make them.

BartonThinks · May 24, 2021

2 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

I thought they are the Wild West, Turbosquid is a good site, Though it sells expensive goods, however the reference pics (even 360° and structure line) are Free! I'm going to make them.

Would be great to have these in-game.

If I may, I might suggest testing them in game (or in the lot editor) next to the Wild West props in CT14 Props Vol02. It would be fantastic if your models and CT14's could be used together.

In either case, it will be great to see your take on Wild West buildings!

On a separate note...

I wanted to quickly say that I made a mistake about the scale of your vintage car props several months ago. I was comparing your car props against the size of Maxis car props, and other props made at a similar scale. I've read recently that Maxis cars are under-scaled compared to most other buildings and props in the game, so they're a poor comparison point for scale. I believe you got the size of the cars correct after all, and I didn't properly understand how vehicles were scaled in-game.

Raymond7cn · May 24, 2021

@BartonThinks, Dear Barton, You are a responsible Lotter I can tell, Glad to hear you are also interested in it, Actually I still remember that you and Cori and even Terring like them to be in the game as well. Anyway, I will try my best, I guess you will lend a hand with testing and Lotting at then. *:blush:

By now I plan to make Tractor (TRUE3D) and Wild west at the same time, I hate quit and fall back in my life so I never give up. I know some big ones are laughing at me in the corner(Simtropolis Building, Minas Tirith, Old Trafford), Never mind, I will conquer them at a proper time.

And whenever you want to do sth with those Vintage cars, Please feel free to let me know.

Yours,

-- Raymond

BartonThinks · May 24, 2021

58 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

@BartonThinks, Dear Barton, You are a responsible Lotter I can tell, Glad to hear you are also interested in it, Actually I still remember that you and Cori and even Terring like them to be in the game as well. Anyway, I will try my best, I guess you will lend a hand with testing and Lotting at then.

By now I plan to make Tractor (TRUE3D) and Wild west at the same time, I hate quit and fall back in my life so I never give up. I know some big ones are laughing at me in the corner(Simtropolis Building, Minas Tirith, Old Trafford), Never mind, I will conquer them at a proper time.

And whenever you want to do sth with those Vintage cars, Please feel free to let me know.

Yours,

-- Raymond

I would be more than happy to help with testing and lotting the Wild West buildings. Just let me know how I can be of service.

And please feel free to release the vintage cars whenever you like. I was lotting with them recently, and I noticed a minor error with one set of cars. If you're getting ready to release them, I'd be happy to send you a screenshot of the issue.

Raymond7cn · May 25, 2021

@BartonThinks Thank you Barton, and I'm gonna release the Vintage car and wind farm as soon as possible, have to say that these fill up everyday in a good way (much better than hospital), and this is we were talking about, I'm on my way!

BartonThinks · May 25, 2021

7 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

@BartonThinks Thank you Barton, and I'm gonna release the Vintage car and wind farm as soon as possible, have to say that these fill up everyday in a good way (much better than hospital), and this is we were talking about, I'm on my way!

Both looking great, Ray!

Raymond7cn · May 26, 2021

Some interesting animations in Simcity_1.dat:

I stared at the last one for a while, got the meaning finally, Ha-ha! Maxis's so funny!

Raymond7cn · May 26, 2021

Windows gave me an idea with its daily Desktop:

It's just 15 pieces base textures, like a Puzzle game during Lotting, we all can be a good modeller by this way. Don't fall over the edge. @Terring *:8)

Raymond7cn · May 26, 2021

Future learning note:

1. About animation:

Barton gave me some tips about animated prop today, I have tested that the "kSC4BuildingModelClassProperty" is essential, whereas haven't tested if i could use RKT1 or 0 + "kSC4BuildingModelClassProperty", Furthermore, I want to know what's the differences among vanilla's values of kSC4BMCP, there are many combos there, especially 0xAA123BF9 (most ATC) and 0xEA123BE1(most True3d), Prior to this I have had some problems with the shadow of my animated s3d prop (that ugly Dragon *:blush: ), speaking of which, It also reminds me that if there is a shadow map in game? when I was making that fsh&png opposition test, The color of night and shadow seemed to be changed as well. Oh Besides, I also need to make clear of frame rate of S3D, it seemed to be no avail even I changed it to a slow number, The game and LE still showed a rate in '8'. I seemed to see some 'frame' names in one section of Effdir.

2. About the size of Base Texture:

Today I wanted to make a 256x256 texture at first, but it couldn't be readed by LE, Then I had to rescale them to 128x128, I dimly remember that have heard that it's ok with 256 resolution somewhere, Anyway, I may need to test if the game can recognize 256 by making it constrainedly.

Raymond7cn · May 26, 2021

In terms of playing SC4, You all knew I'm quite a Newbie. *:blush: so I have made some documents so that I could refer to some infos constantly. This is one of them:

These values come from Web, so I'm not sure if they are completely correct, I was supposed to cross-check them in Reader, and also I'd like to add more useful infos and the pictures for convenient searching, Anyways, I wonder that whether or not we have already had a similar one? *:read:

CorinaMarie · May 26, 2021

7 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

It also reminds me that if there is a shadow map in game?

If you are asking if there is a DataView map for it, I've not seen anything in Ingred.ini for that. One thing I do find is exemplar 6534284A-A9189CF0-00000001, but I've no idea if that's useful or not for what you need.

^ Perhaps the Automata terrain shadow amount is related?

I played around with this one long ago and what I didn't know then was the Terrain Mod I was using at the time also included a copy of it and happened to be loading later. So, all my tests produced no change, but ofc now I understand load order. I've not revisited this one since.

52 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

I'd like to add more useful infos and the pictures for convenient searching, Anyways, I wonder that if we have already had a similar one?

I like the SimCity 4 Building Index site.

Terring · May 26, 2021

7 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Windows gave me an idea with its daily Desktop:

It's just 15 pieces base textures, like a Puzzle game during Lotting, we all can be a good modeller by this way. Don't fall over the edge. @Terring

The concept of a hole on the surface can lead to many incredible ideas, Ray. With the right textures you can recreate in SimCity 4 openings to cave networks, entrances to mining operations or lava pits close to volcanoes, just to name a few ideas. You can also go freestyle and make urban themes (just like your example, as if there is an entire city under our feet), water theme or sky theme (cities floating in the sky). You can even make space theme, similar to what you can do when messing around with the Scenario Editor of Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest.

spacehole.jpg.bb432e26f0b3a33a29a16d2ca89ad4c0.jpg

Don't fall over the edge, Ray *:8)

City_Slider · May 26, 2021

Like i said... Joshua is back... for real :-D

Hope thinks doing better and better Mate!

Best Regards, Oliver

Barroco Hispano · May 26, 2021

The question is how to convert the plane and wagon into a "flat" base texture without distorting the image.

{

It would be interesting to make it look like a BAT with LODs but that it is actually a base texture.

BartonThinks · May 26, 2021

For the HD textures, you might try contacting @vortext. I know he occasionally lurks on the forums, and he's released a number of HD textures. I remember reading in one of his development threads that he had trouble getting 256px textures to work originally, so he might be able to shed some light on how to fix the texture problem.

Regarding shadows -- I don't think I've ever seen a True3D prop generate shadows in the game. There are a few prop files (like Vester's train props) that rely on True3D for interchangeable textures, but unless I'm remembering wrong, this has the side effect of the props not generating any shadows. Of course, it would be great if there's a hidden way to fix this!

Raymond's Newbie Thoughts

1,166 posts in this topic Last Reply June 22, 2022

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