Lot editor texture finding

[monkeywater 910]

So I am modifying a lot to change the base texture to match those around it.  Is there an easy way to look up which base texture was used on a lot in order to ensure the number in the dropdown list matches?  Also, is there an easy way to find the desired base texture in the lot editor list without scrolling forever and trying to match it?

[rivit 3,391]

You can see the texture reference in LE by selecting base or overlay texture tab, then clicking on the texture you want in the Lot layout. It will display in white to the bottom left of that layout.

In Lot Editor the reference to a texture is always the smallest size - so lets say the texture had an id of 0xDEADBEE0 - then this is referring to the textures 0xDEADBEE0 to 0XDEADBEE4  as a mipset. A mipset is a collection of textures each 1/4 the size of the previous when measured from the largest to the smallest. Textures are generally made from the largest size (128x128) and the mips derived from them by successive halving in x and y.

 By analogy textures ending in 5 in LE are textures 5-9 and those ending in A are A-E. You would be very surprised to find a texture ending in F in LE. 

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

As @rivit said, when hovering over or clicking a texture in the LE it displays the texture IID visibly in the corner of the top-down view panel.

For example:

 

So then this corresponds to how it appears listed in order inside the textures list (same for base or overlays respectively).

Unfortunately I don't believe it's possible to add a searching capability to the Lot Editor's texture lists. I do plan to develop my LE Expanded Preview Panel mod further to release extra enhancements as a "Lot Editor UI Overhaul" though, so I'll see whether that might be within the realms of technical possibility. I'm leaning towards it won't be, since UI elements are mostly fixed per type, but often there's no knowing without trying with these things.

[monkeywater 910]

Thank you @rivit and @Cyclone Boom!

But there is no easy way to find the texture in the list after finding its number?  I'm looking for 0x25db0000 but it does not seem to be in alphabetic order?

[monkeywater 910]

Another related question, I have now found the texture, and saved it as a new lot.  However it still shows as the old texture?  WTF?  I have done this successfully before.  What causes this isse?

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Glad you found it!

I was about to post this showing the location in the LE list from an empty Plugins folder, so here it is so others know what it is:

 

This looks like the farm dirt texture, and I do know how some textures are wealth based. What this means is they change to a different one depending on whether an adjacent lot is low, medium, or high wealth. This happened to be an issue with the above lot I previewed, which is for a component of the City Halls package Cori and I are developing. That texture looked fine in the LE as normal, but in game it changed to another type of grass.

Our workaround was to locate the original IIDs (set of 5) in the SimCity_2.dat file and then assign a new incremental range to them. This then allows it to be loaded up in the LE as a separate unique texture, and doesn't clash with the original which is still dynamically wealth based.

If this sounds interesting, let me know and we'll whip up a file for you with the 0x25db0000 texture assigned this way.

[monkeywater 910]

That sounds interesting, however I cannot claim to have understood most of it!

 

But I don't understand why I am having this issue as Cori actually made me the lot that has this texture on it, a 1x1 filler of that with no effects.  I use that regularyl for filling in railway areas, and in what I just did, i put it as the bottom texture on mas71's retaining wall...

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

17 minutes ago, monkeywater said:

That sounds interesting, however I cannot claim to have understood most of it!

No worries, and it is a bit (well, actually rather a lot technical). Basically if you can tell us which texture you'd like, we'll create a unique instance of it. That would then allow you to place it on any lot, with knowing it'll not change to any other texture when plopped in game.

 

17 minutes ago, monkeywater said:

But I don't understand why I am having this issue as Cori actually made me the lot that has this texture on it, a 1x1 filler of that with no effects.

Would you have a link for that file or can specify the file name?  (This will help us so we can query our local archive retrieval system.)

Or feel free to attach the lot she made if that'd be easier.

Rest assured we'll get to the root cause of this.

-CB & Cori

[monkeywater 910]

Thank you!

 

this is the lot she made: 

PLOP_1x1_Dirt Base filler lot_2c7537bd.SC4Lot

[monkeywater 910]

10 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Basically if you can tell us which texture you'd like, we'll create a unique instance of it.

The one this is about is the brown created when anything is placed near a railway, that shade ofbrown. 

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Checking this and we've found that lot is made by Tibi and attached to this post in the CFI thread.

While nothing wrong with the file, it does indeed simply use the 0x25db0000 Maxis dirt farm texture. There shouldn't be any problem using it on mas71's retaining wall lots though, so it's a bit odd. One possibility is there might be an overlay texture too that completely covers the base one you've set and so that's why it looks different.

Also a difference might be if using PIM-X or the Maxis LE for the lot editing. Although I'm more familiar lotting using the tool Maxis made, I do know how the PIM-X lot editor allows saving multiple texture layers, and so that could be a cause of something not quite working as you intend.

If you could show some pics of what you've done in lotting and the result you see in the game, that'd help determine what's going on.

[monkeywater 910]

So this is what I make in the lot editor, it should be very straight forward, just change of the mas71 wall base texture

 

But here is how it looks in game...

 

And I just went in game to plop it....and it looks fine?  I don't know what was wrong, yesterday the exact same icon in the game was plopping the lot with the wrong base texture.  Since restarting my computer overnight it works.  I have no idea what is going on, but it works now, thank you for your help!  I changed nothing since yesterday, but it looks fine today....

[BartonThinks 3,416]

@monkeywater You might try using PIM-X, which has a lot editor with a prop and texture viewing panel, which allows you to easily find textures based on their instance ID number.