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

[StevieKam84 46]

And doubling it up on the questions - hope this is the right forum for it.   Learning the basics of Pimx and Reader, downloaded some packs of buildings via the genius Sc4pac.  I like the idea of residential Halver,  Commercial Doubler and Industrial Quadrupler.  My question:  is there a way to edit multiple exemplars at once? Ie.  Adjusting custom residential to 0.1 filling.   Or do I individually have to edit each one? 

Cori Edit: See the standalone topic and answer there please.

  Edited March 20, 2025 by CorinaMarie  
Added linky to dedicated topic.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

8 minutes ago, StevieKam84 said:

And doubling it up on the questions - hope this is the right forum for it.

From the very beginning, CB and I were not overly in favor of this catch-all thread, but there wasn't enough reason to block it either. 

The idea is that it would be fine for Hey, how to I find the traffic count on my railroad? which can be answered in one quick reply, while anything more complex should be its own topic. With its own thread, there's room for back and forth discussion and help that doesn't become interspersed with a dozen other conversations. And when peeps are later searching, the Title of the Topic is given extra weight for relevance.

I regret we ever let this monstrosity grow like we did.

 

15 minutes ago, StevieKam84 said:

My question:  is there a way to edit multiple exemplars at once? Ie.  Adjusting custom residential to 0.1 filling.

I sort of seem to remember there is a way if all the exemplars you want to edit are in the same .dat file. (I've been away too long to recall so I'll be re-learning if/when the experts reply.)

This is, however, the type of question I feel would be way better off as it's own topic.

[rsc204 21,808]

Editing the Filling Degree property will have precisely 0 effect. This property is only used by PIM-X and changes will not result unless the Building’s properties are recalculated within that application.

Otherwise it is possible to edit multiple entries at once, provided all the files are in the same (DAT) file. But that’s not the best approach for adjusting Occupancy values (# of Residents/Jobs) of buildings. Since all these values will be different, you’ll need to consider the new values for each individual item. Likewise you may also need to adjust other properties related to Pollution/Trash/Water & Electricity consumption etc. There isn’t a quick way of simply adjusting all different values by some factor.

[paulmc 391]

I am plagued with houses growing this huge tree. The tree itself is not ugly, I like it , but for other purposes, not hiding the view of the house .. How I can remove it , is there a file I can delete , or what else I could do ?

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

Hi @paulmc. I think the best you can do is to simply edit the lot in LE or PIMX and replace the prop with another type of flora which is not as obstructive. 

[simmering 2,637]

My airport hangars suddenly lost their tarmac. They were there but I added a number of BATs to the plugins. Could this be one of those infamous ID conflicts? Which tool do I use to find out?

[rsc204 21,808]

If having added some Plugins, you run into problems, the simplest solution is to remove them again and see if the problem is resolved. From there with a bit of trial and error you can quickly determine which specific file or mod is causing the trouble.

The old binary search method is still the fastest and most reliable way to find the source of problems.

[Ke|is 3,333]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

If having added some Plugins, you run into problems, the simplest solution is to remove them again and see if the problem is resolved. From there with a bit of trial and error you can quickly determine which specific file or mod is causing the trouble.

It actually sounds as a simple and perhaps too simple method, but in fact, I'd say it is the faster too,  and most safe method to resolved this issue. If after removing those plugins the textures are back, I'd recommend adding the plugins back one by one until you find the culprit.

Good luck mate. 

[simmering 2,637]

Thanks @rsc204 and @Ke|is. This is what I ended up doing but without success. Eventually, I found the cause which was me (of course).

Before posting my question, I re-installed the entire airport pack. I wanted to make sure that I had not inadvertently removed a dependency. But the tarmac was still missing, hence my conclusion that it might be some conflict. It wasn't. It turns out that I did remove something. Only adding it back in does not automatically correct existing LOTs which send me on this wild goose chase. In the end I had to bulldoze the damaged LOTs and plop them again.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

I remember that there was an interactive chart on SC4 Devotion in which one could find dependencies by IID numbers and it was complete with images and stuff like that.

I can't find it on SC4 Evermore. Could anyone please direct me to this resource?

[nos.17 5,120]

13 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I remember that there was an interactive chart on SC4 Devotion in which one could find dependencies by IID numbers and it was complete with images and stuff like that.

I can't find it on SC4 Evermore. Could anyone please direct me to this resource?

Was it the Prop & Texture Catalog?

[vetram 221]

Hello to all friends !....is there any roadside parking mod for road ? Thanx 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

6 hours ago, nos.17 said:

Was it the Prop & Texture Catalog?

This is the one, thank you. It lacks images though - were they removed? 

2 hours ago, vetram said:

Hello to all friends !....is there any roadside parking mod for road ? Thanx 

Here are a few I'm aware of:

 

 

The only problem with them is that they feature some rather antiquated cars. I tried to replace them with something more modern but the lots stopped working after that. 

[nos.17 5,120]

7 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

This is the one, thank you. It lacks images though - were they removed? 

Nope, it only ever had thumbnails for textures - I never got around to adding them for props. If you mean the images of the entire packs, you can still download the legacy version here.

9 hours ago, vetram said:

Hello to all friends !....is there any roadside parking mod for road ? Thanx 

One more:

Or perhaps something like this that adds the cars onto the side of the actual street?

 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

Is there any way in LE to add transparent lots that cheat LE into thinking they are "base textures"?

I ask, because I frequently create lots that are supposed to be transparent, but LE wouldn't let me save them if there is no base texture applied.  So I'm just wondering.

[Tyberius06 12,189]

1 hour ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Is there any way in LE to add transparent lots that cheat LE into thinking they are "base textures"?

I ask, because I frequently create lots that are supposed to be transparent, but LE wouldn't let me save them if there is no base texture applied.  So I'm just wondering.

I know that with Maxis Lot Editor you can't easily create transparent based lots, but you can do it with SC4 PIM-X (aka PIM-X, aka X-Tool) easily as it is able to save lots without base textures. There might have been recently some kind of actual transparent texture development, because I vaguely recall something, but I don't know if it was released or finished at all. With PIM-X it's just much easier. 

Alternatively you need to remember the base texture IID that you placed onto a lot in Lot Editor, then go with iLieve Reader, open the Lot, click onto the lotconfig exemplar, hunt down those lines which contains the relevant base texture IID and delete them from the lot config exemplar.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

12 minutes ago, Tyberius06 said:

I know that with Maxis Lot Editor you can't easily create transparent based lots, but you can do it with SC4 PIM-X (aka PIM-X, aka X-Tool) easily as it is able to save lots without base textures.

Ok, thanks for info. I prefer LE, but I was just wondering if we have a "warm body" of sorts that could deceive the program.

14 minutes ago, Tyberius06 said:

Alternatively you need to remember the base texture IID that you placed onto a lot in Lot Editor, then go with iLieve Reader, open the Lot, click onto the lotconfig exemplar, hunt down those lines which contains the relevant base texture IID and delete them from the lot config exemplar.

That's what I do. It's just a bit annoying with larger lots. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

4 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I was just wondering if we have a "warm body" of sorts that could deceive the program.

For some things in the game (like MySim pics in BMP format), CoriPink (0xFF00FF) is transparent so worth a try, but I doubt it'll work that way for base textures. (I seem to recall I tried that as an old solution attempt for the water bug problem and they showed up, but also that's been a long time ago so a quick check would only be a small waste of time.)

[nos.17 5,120]

5 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Ok, thanks for info. I prefer LE, but I was just wondering if we have a "warm body" of sorts that could deceive the program.

You can still find many older lots (mostly pre 2010 - some by Glenni come to mind which I have come across recently) that specifically use a wild texture in LE as a base and then never distribute that texture in the upload so it's missing. Missing base textures = transparent. Would not recommend this though for anything publicly uploaded as it's susceptible to the water bug, and any tool used to scan the lots will report a missing dependency.

[matias93 7,535]

7 hours ago, nos.17 said:

You can still find many older lots (mostly pre 2010 - some by Glenni come to mind which I have come across recently) that specifically use a wild texture in LE as a base and then never distribute that texture in the upload so it's missing. Missing base textures = transparent. Would not recommend this though for anything publicly uploaded as it's susceptible to the water bug, and any tool used to scan the lots will report a missing dependency.

The water bug got corrected by @memo using a DLL, but I'm still unsure if pointing to a null texture could cause other problems.

[nos.17 5,120]

2 hours ago, matias93 said:

The water bug got corrected by @memo using a DLL, but I'm still unsure if pointing to a null texture could cause other problems.

Yep that's true, but just from a "best practice" standpoint I still wouldn't recommend this (not implying you are either).

[memo 1,444]

18 hours ago, matias93 said:

The water bug got corrected by @memo using a DLL, but I'm still unsure if pointing to a null texture could cause other problems.

The null texture ID 0x00000000 is actually special, in that it can be used to eliminate the terrain, like on the El-Rail-Subway transition, but it's still susceptible to the bug.

[vetram 221]

-Continuing my quick SC4 questions , I post this image which may help you understand what i am looking for ...

- i would like to use for this place , something similar custom content ..what i want to use are pedmalls which i found in Draggable Pedmalls (NAM) , and now i want to represent it with walkways ( the thinner passageways as seen in the pic)  ...so i am looking for walkaways like the pic (hope this is the right name of them) ..and also the default texture of grass in the game has a thinner color , i think the texture of the grass in the pic is fine , but is it possible to find such a grass color for the game ?

Thanx in advance  

 

[matias93 7,535]

28 minutes ago, vetram said:

-Continuing my quick SC4 questions , I post this image which may help you understand what i am looking for ...

- i would like to use for this place , something similar custom content ..what i want to use are pedmalls which i found in Draggable Pedmalls (NAM) , and now i want to represent it with walkways ( the thinner passageways as seen in the pic)  ...so i am looking for walkaways like the pic (hope this is the right name of them) ..and also the default texture of grass in the game has a thinner color , i think the texture of the grass in the pic is fine , but is it possible to find such a grass color for the game ?

Thanx in advance  

 

The previous implementation of Pedmalls, the non-draggable ones, include what are called "mountain trails" which have more or less the width you're thinking of. There is also a mod by Deadwoods which cosmetically modifies those mountain trails to look like bike paths, but I'm not sure if that mod is available to download right now, as it was only hosted on the LEX.

About the grass, that looks a bit similar to the Gobias' Berner Oberland terrain controller, and you might use that to find a sidewalk mod that matches the texture.

[dragonsteincole 1,397]

Is there an option i'm missing that would set the default day/night cycle to 'day only'? Recently, something has changed, not sure what, but the game will always default to using the full day/night cycle when loading a city, and setting it to day only and saving doesn't seem to have any effect. Not 100% sure what the expected behaviour is supposed to be after all these years tbh.

[vetram 221]

3 hours ago, matias93 said:

The previous implementation of Pedmalls, the non-draggable ones, include what are called "mountain trails" which have more or less the width you're thinking of. There is also a mod by Deadwoods which cosmetically modifies those mountain trails to look like bike paths, but I'm not sure if that mod is available to download right now, as it was only hosted on the LEX

Thanks so much , as for the Pedmalls i looked for the mountain trails have the same width as you wrote , but i think Deadwoods trails (which i found) seem to fit better especially BSC_Park_Textures_SandPavers.dat , but i tested and it seems that they are not functional (just eye-candy)....so , are there perhaps such trails that are functional like the NAM Pedmalls with the width of mountain trails?...any suggestion ? 

 

[matias93 7,535]

5 hours ago, vetram said:

Thanks so much , as for the Pedmalls i looked for the mountain trails have the same width as you wrote , but i think Deadwoods trails (which i found) seem to fit better especially BSC_Park_Textures_SandPavers.dat , but i tested and it seems that they are not functional (just eye-candy)....so , are there perhaps such trails that are functional like the NAM Pedmalls with the width of mountain trails?...any suggestion ? 

 

There are functional bike paths that override the mountain trails, but those aren't available. The ones you found are part of a park set that's only cosmetic (apart from the park effects). What you could do is to use the pedmall mountain trails as they are for now, and then override them when the bike paths become available again.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

Do you guys know of any dependency or download in which I could find small, generic, colored flags that are no bigger than 3-4 meters?

All I seem to be able to find are national flags...

[Honolulu 2,742]

1 hour ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Do you guys know of any dependency or download in which I could find small, generic, colored flags that are no bigger than 3-4 meters?

All I seem to be able to find are national flags...

some non-national flags here

https://toutsimcities.com/downloads/view/1972

https://toutsimcities.com/downloads/view/1558

Hope this help

[simmering 2,637]

2 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Do you guys know of any dependency or download in which I could find small, generic, colored flags that are no bigger than 3-4 meters?

All I seem to be able to find are national flags...

There are these sets of fictive flags: