Got a quick SC4 question?... Ask here!

[Girafarig 1,379]

28 minutes ago, Silur said:

My freight rail car dependency packages (second hand) are being asked to be placed on STEX at the request of Simtropolis members.
This project was inspired by the great author Badsim and his work in AntigOne's Projects: Elsewhere on SC4 Devotion (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=217.2780).
I also visited the rhb-trainsim and UKTrainSim sites in 2019. The end result was these railroad freight cars.
Simtropolis Administration!
Is this a violation of any rules of this site or someone else's copyright?
Thanks.

I think that you're supposed to ask the author for permission before sharing. If you can't reach them (which is often the case), then you should ask the admins at this website. I know they make exceptions every now and then.

You can also ask @Tarkus, who's in charge of maintaining SC4Evermore, which is the successor site to SC4Devotion and holder of the rights to upload these files. Maybe he'll get around to it some day (there's a lot of files being uploaded and there's a prioritisation process, I'm sure he'll be able to tell you in more detail).

[Tarkus 6,932]

1 hour ago, Girafarig said:

I think that you're supposed to ask the author for permission before sharing. If you can't reach them (which is often the case), then you should ask the admins at this website. I know they make exceptions every now and then.

You can also ask @Tarkus, who's in charge of maintaining SC4Evermore, which is the successor site to SC4Devotion and holder of the rights to upload these files. Maybe he'll get around to it some day (there's a lot of files being uploaded and there's a prioritisation process, I'm sure he'll be able to tell you in more detail).

BadSim's files on that page of AntigOne weren't actually released at any point, to my knowledge, and in this case, it sounds like they were merely the inspiration for @Silur, rather than being an actual component of the proposed package.  If that's the case, then unfortunately, there's not much that can be done from the SC4E/SC4D perspective, though I might still be able to provide some guidance.

2 hours ago, Silur said:

I also visited the rhb-trainsim and UKTrainSim sites in 2019. The end result was these railroad freight cars.
Simtropolis Administration!
Is this a violation of any rules of this site or someone else's copyright?
Thanks.

With regards to the aforementioned train sim sites, the status of whether or not you can upload the files right now then depends on their relationship to the content there.  If again, the content shown on the train sim sites was merely inspiration, and you did any model/texture work entirely yourself, it's not really any different from someone making a BAT of an RL building, and you'd likely be in the clear.

If you directly reused and adapted models/textures made by other creators for those train sims, that's a different case.  At that point, it would depend on what kind of licensing they have on the files.  If there's nothing that explicitly spells out that reuse is okay, then you should attempt to obtain permission.  If there's no response granting or denying permission after a reasonable timeframe, then we can look at options.  In any such case, any upload that reuses/adapts models from others (even when the license explicitly grants reuse right off the bat) should generally credit the original creators as contributors.  My post over at SimTarkus might be of use.

If I had more details, I could probably give you a more definitive answer.

-Tarkus

[Silur 3,304]

1 hour ago, Tarkus said:

BadSim's files on that page of AntigOne weren't actually released at any point, to my knowledge, and in this case, it sounds like they were merely the inspiration for @Silur, rather than being an actual component of the proposed package.  If that's the case, then unfortunately, there's not much that can be done from the SC4E/SC4D perspective, though I might still be able to provide some guidance.

With regards to the aforementioned train sim sites, the status of whether or not you can upload the files right now then depends on their relationship to the content there.  If again, the content shown on the train sim sites was merely inspiration, and you did any model/texture work entirely yourself, it's not really any different from someone making a BAT of an RL building, and you'd likely be in the clear.

If you directly reused and adapted models/textures made by other creators for those train sims, that's a different case.  At that point, it would depend on what kind of licensing they have on the files.  If there's nothing that explicitly spells out that reuse is okay, then you should attempt to obtain permission.  If there's no response granting or denying permission after a reasonable timeframe, then we can look at options.  In any such case, any upload that reuses/adapts models from others (even when the license explicitly grants reuse right off the bat) should generally credit the original creators as contributors.  My post over at SimTarkus might be of use.

If I had more details, I could probably give you a more definitive answer.

-Tarkus

I’m not ready to endlessly go around in circles and look for permission on sites that are closed today.
I have neither the time nor the desire for this.
The answer from @Tarkus solves this problem. I will not post my SIS Freight Railway Cars 07m Vol_01 - PROPS on STEX.

 

Perhaps something different another time.I am ready to fulfill all the requirements of the Simtropolis site.
The law is strong, but it's law (DURA LEX SED LEX).
Good luck to you all and see you again!
Thank you.

 

[atsf189 460]

Is there a list of the tags that can be used in Ltext files and what they display?

Is there a list of the different descriptions that can appear in the menu ui file to display stuff such as number of jobs created?

[rsc204 21,808]

1 hour ago, atsf189 said:

Is there a list of the tags that can be used in Ltext files and what they display?

Not that I'm aware of, although if I recall correctly the 'Tag' simply refers to the ID used to define the property, which can be found in Reader.

So for example, some common ones from RTMT/Transit Stations would be Monthly Cost (0xEA54D286 - Budget Item: Cost) and Capacity (0x4AA60EBC - Catalog Capacity). So far as I know you can pick up the value of any Property from a Buildings Exemplar this way.

1 hour ago, atsf189 said:

Is there a list of the different descriptions that can appear in the menu ui file to display stuff such as number of jobs created?

UIs are a little less clear, there is a list of some of the values in this tutorial:

https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/SimCity-4/modding-information/tutorial-for-creating-and-customizing-queries-in-sc4-r187/

But I am fairly certain it is not complete, the problem there being these values (variables) are in the internal code of the .exe, so there may well be others out there we don't know about. Since we can only know about the ID for those used by Maxis UIs. 

[Null 45 3,041]

13 hours ago, atsf189 said:

Is there a list of the tags that can be used in Ltext files and what they display?

Are you referring to the items in a LTEXT file that are surrounded by number signs (e.g. #City#)? If so, I don't think there is a complete list. The advisor system provides hundreds of variables in the form of game.<variable_name> that can be used with that system, IIRC one of the LUA files has a (partial?) list.

The hard-coded variables are as follows:

Spoiler

General:

City - city name
Mayor - mayor name
Year - in-game year
Population - city population
Region - region name

Advisor:

link_id
sit_link_id - situation link id
advisor - advisor name

Reward:

building_initial_cost
building_monthly_cost

UDI:

mission_target
num_targets
cur_target_index
num_targets_remaining
mission_mayor_rating
mission_failure_mayor_rating
mission_money
mission_failure_money

Exemplar property value formatting, the first letter is case-insensitive:

M:<property id> - format the <property id> value as a money/currency string
D:<property id> - format the <property id> value as a decimal number string

 

Additionally, DLLs can add more game.<variable_name> values and string tokens. My SC4MoreDemandInfo DLL plugin adds a few more game. variables, including a g_current_ir_cap value that provides the actual IR cap.

I am also working on a DLL that provides more string tokens for the building query UI, but currently the only new value is a building_styles token that will be replaced with the occupant's building style IDs as hexadecimal number(s). For example, a building that uses the Chicago and New York styles would show 0x2000, 0x2001.

12 hours ago, rsc204 said:

But I am fairly certain it is not complete, the problem there being these values (variables) are in the internal code of the .exe, so there may well be others out there we don't know about. Since we can only know about the ID for those used by Maxis UIs. 

From what I can tell, Maxis hard-coded the IDs of various UI controls, which the game uses to decide what value it needs to set for the control.

[atsf189 460]

17 hours ago, Null 45 said:

Are you referring to the items in a LTEXT file that are surrounded by number signs (e.g. #City#)?

Yes. There several ploppable buildings that have low wealth and medium wealth jobs. The query menu will only show the medium wealth jobs and I could not find the id for displaying low wealth jobs in the query menu.

I also could not find the id for displaying either medium or low wealth jobs in the ltext description files

[Null 45 3,041]

3 hours ago, atsf189 said:

The query menu will only show the medium wealth jobs and I could not find the id for displaying low wealth jobs in the query menu.

What id is being used to show the medium wealth jobs? 0x1051 appears to be the id that the game uses for its Current Jobs/Occupancy value, and the wealth value that id uses is the building's current wealth level. It also doesn't support mixed-use buildings, but that is probably also true of a lot of other parts of the game code.

It should be possible to add more LTEXT variables for the building query UI, it would just be a matter of deciding what values to add and the names to use for them. Something like cs1_jobs, co2_jobs, r1_occupancy, etc. would probably work.

[kaimai 1,042]

Two probably very basic questions that I'm surprised I haven't found answers for:

1. What causes props to turn sideways when placed on sloped ground, and can this be fixed? This is particularly noticeable for buildings as props (see image).

2. When I import region maps with SC4M, why do they look like this rather than using the colors of whatever terrain mod I'm using? (and also don't have any trees.) Would I have to enter and save each map tile individually in order to change the appearance?

[rsc204 21,808]

Props can be set so they do not conform to slopes, the setting to change would be in the Prop Exemplar.

SC4M as a format does not create pre-rendered regions. Up to a limited size, SC4 can do this, but that’s only for small greyscale BMPs. When the SC4M format was created and for a long time since, distributing fully rendered regions was not possible due to their files sizes. You do need to enter each tile and save it once to render the region screenshot for each city.

[memo 1,444]

50 minutes ago, kaimai said:

1. What causes props to turn sideways when placed on sloped ground, and can this be fixed? This is particularly noticeable for buildings as props (see image).

This is controlled by the "Orient To Slope" property of the prop. As can be seen in your picture, setting this property leads to props being shown at different angles than originally rendered – in the same way a 3D Camera would display BATs at unusual angles – so the effect is only suitable for certain types of props.

[Sniffeh 121]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask about this, but I keep getting notifications about replies to threads I'm not following, sometimes about people commenting who I don't even follow. Is there a way to turn this off in my settings?

[Null 45 3,041]

30 minutes ago, Sniffeh said:

Is there a way to turn this off in my settings?

Click on your user name on the top right of the page, then click on Manage Followed Content. That page will give you a list of categories for types of followed content.

[Sniffeh 121]

18 minutes ago, Null 45 said:

Click on your user name on the top right of the page, then click on Manage Followed Content. That page will give you a list of categories for types of followed content.

Cool. Thanks. I didn't even know that was there.

[papiouuu 38]

I like to play naturally with small homes at first and build out then up. Instead of bulldozing homes and businesses that are occupied 

Overtime do buildings degrade or become abandoned overtime like how power plants do?  
 

[Girafarig 1,379]

15 hours ago, papiouuu said:

Overtime do buildings degrade or become abandoned overtime like how power plants do?  
 

Not like power plants, no. Buildings can "degrade" (be occupied by a lower income level) and become abandoned if they're no longer desirable to their occupants, which can happen for a long list of reasons (lack of suitable transportation, degradation of services, less desirable surroundings, pollution…), but time has very little to do with it.

You will find, however, that if you've zoned a formerly lower-density area as medium- or high-density, homes and small businesses will automatically be replaced with denser lots, as long as there's enough demand and desirability in that area.

[Kel9509 1,363]

On 4/4/2024 at 7:54 PM, atsf189 said:

Yes. There several ploppable buildings that have low wealth and medium wealth jobs. The query menu will only show the medium wealth jobs and I could not find the id for displaying low wealth jobs in the query menu.

I also could not find the id for displaying either medium or low wealth jobs in the ltext description files

I'm working on testing Null45's new Query DLL mod.  What buildings provide both low- and medium-wealth jobs simultaneously (or is it all of them and I just didn't realize it)?  I'd like to be sure I'm testing the new Query mod with the right setup and building.

[flameducky 0]

If I want to prevent a modded lot from being added to the game as a ploppable, I only need to remove the file that starts with lm correct? 

[atsf189 460]

On 4/27/2024 at 5:52 PM, Kel9509 said:

What buildings provide both low- and medium-wealth jobs simultaneously

It is what ever is in the below property.

In this case low and medium wealth commercial jobs the dollar signs $ low and $$ medium

[atsf189 460]

20 hours ago, flameducky said:

I only need to remove the file that starts with lm correct?

It depends on who created the files.

Usually the file that has 2 exemplars (one lot and one building) and 2 PNG files (one is for the menu picture) is the ploppable file.

[MissVanleider 1,850]

So I need to do some real maintenance on my plugins folder, some of the uploads of MEGA packs at SC4E are quite enticing, but over many years I have collected a bunch of random content, and want to make sure to avoid duplicates.

I have never used the BSC cleanitol program and I believe the SC4 cleanitol will not run on my machine because it is win 7.

Anyone who is a longtime player have any thoughts on how I might automate the process of searching for duplicate lots in a more 'manual' fashion? I do appreciate I may be asking for the impossible.

Thanks,

Abi

[rsc204 21,808]

I suspect you won’t find the BSC Cleanitol much use, unless you have Cleanitol txt files to remove depreciated packages?

DataNode is probably your best bet here, run a search for duplicates, export the data to CSV (spreadsheet) format and dig through it from there. But even so, it won’t tell you exactly which files to remove. Just provide a good overview of what content is duplicated. But you need to be careful that when you remove an older, smaller package that the newer, larger one contains everything from the previous file. Best bet, use the data as a guide and move all the files you take out of Plugins somewhere safe. If you see any missing Plug-in messages, don’t save the game until restoring files clears said messages. Otherwise though there should be no problem with that method of doing this. 

[MissVanleider 1,850]

29 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

I suspect you won’t find the BSC Cleanitol much use, unless you have Cleanitol txt files to remove depreciated packages?

DataNode is probably your best bet here, run a search for duplicates, export the data to CSV (spreadsheet) format and dig through it from there. But even so, it won’t tell you exactly which files to remove. Just provide a good overview of what content is duplicated. But you need to be careful that when you remove an older, smaller package that the newer, larger one contains everything from the previous file. Best bet, use the data as a guide and move all the files you take out of Plugins somewhere safe. If you see any missing Plug-in messages, don’t save the game until restoring files clears said messages. Otherwise though there should be no problem with that method of doing this. 

This is exactly the kind of easy to follow advice that you have been providing me (and many others) for literally years at this point.

Yes the lack of the txt files was why I assumed the BSCC would be no use.

Thanks again, hope your holiday was enjoyable!

[MissVanleider 1,850]

Can this work or are my clicks to try to get the L1 rail over RHW4 doomed to failure?

[matias93 7,535]

16 hours ago, MissVanleider said:

Can this work or are my clicks to try to get the L1 rail over RHW4 doomed to failure?

How close are the RHW-4 starters? You could get a better result by having them as close as possible on both sides. If that doesn't work, then there might be an issue with the overriding for that specific piece.

[Haljackey 17,302]

17 hours ago, MissVanleider said:

Can this work or are my clicks to try to get the L1 rail over RHW4 doomed to failure?

Sadly this is not yet supported. There has been some work on this front to add additional capability for configs like this- so keep an eye out for it in new NAM releases.

For now you can go the opposite- ortho RHW-4 over diagonal rail will work.

[JustArrived 18]

Hello all,

Thanks for a great site, and heaps of addons, lovin' it.

I've search the net and Simtropolis and can't find an answer to my question. Is there any way to get a controller to work with SimCity 4? I have  a Stream Deck XL which I use with other programs and games with no problem, but SimCity 4 does not recognise the 'keyboard shortcuts' from it. Is there any answer, or is it no possible.

 

Regards,

Kevin

[evolnixx 2]

im not sure,and im not a guru.... but i would say "no"...and im prob wrong....sc4 is 20yrs old and already requires so many fixes and work rounds 

[rsc204 21,808]

The game really requires a keyboard and mouse. If you can emulate that through the controller, it should be possible since the game is seeing mouse/keyboard input. But no the game itself doesn’t support such natively. 

[JustArrived 18]

Thanks rsc204. The Stream Deck emulates the keyboard. For other software I've programmed it with the relavent hot keys, but, with SimCity 4, no such luck. I programmed it with various hot keys but it refuses to recognise 'keyboard input' from the Stream Deck. Bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world, just would have been nice.

Regards,

Kev