Custom airport icon not showing in Region View

[atsf189 461]

I have an airport that does not show the airport icon in the region view.

Anyone know what Exemplar setting controls this?

It looks like their are three Exemplars per airport

Developer

Lot

Building

[rsc204 21,869]

13 hours ago, atsf189 said:

I have an airport that does not show the airport icon in the region view.

Is it a functional airport?, not all are.

Does it NEED to be a functional airport, airports don't do anything special, it's not like sims are actually coming and going from them and all the benefits they provide are the same properties one can apply to any Buildings Exemplar (i.e. any plop/grow item). I ask because...

13 hours ago, atsf189 said:

It looks like their are three Exemplars per airport

Starting out, that's kinda correct but not exactly how things work, but you need to exercise extreme caution editing anything relating to Airports (or Seaports for that matter). It is possible through messing around with these types of mods to break your save games, such that they would be unrecoverable.

None of this was ever properly documented anywhere public to my knowledge, but it breaks down as follows:

• The main Airport/Seaport Controller file (Developer Exemplar) must have the IID of all functional Lots listed there.
• Each lot requires a further Developer Exemplar, with specific properties for your lot.
  Note, both of the above MUST be in the same file, you can have the second type of Developer Exemplar additionally in other files, but there must be a copy with the main controller entry, otherwise the game will CTD on startup.
• Then you would have your regular Buildings/LotConfig Exemplar and related files, although some special properties are needed for the Building.

That's just an overview, all the settings to link these objects together must all be correct, or at the very least, it won't work. But there is the potential again to make the game fail to start or break savefiles such that you can never load a given city again.

13 hours ago, atsf189 said:

Anyone know what Exemplar setting controls this?

It isn't one setting, your mod needs to be completely integrated into the Airport Controller and correctly setup, then it should be seen as an actual airport by the simulator.

[atsf189 461]

This has to do with the JENXAIRPORT_Dulles_Airport.

There is an enable dat file with for 3 building exemplars one for each of the 3 growth stages all point to IID 0x00030000 with different GID for each growth stage. That is all that is in that enable dat file. There type and group 0x6534284a and 0x7e9a60e7.     The IIDs are 0x9f24f4fe 0x8f24f57f and 0xdf24f547

There is a SC4_Functional_Airports_V2.2 dat file that has the main exemplar. The above IIDs are in the Port Type Exemplar IDs Property. In this dat there are 3 more building exemplar files that appear to be exact copies of the above. They point to the same IID 0x00030000 and have the same Type Group and IID numbers as the above in the enable dat file. For each building file there is a lot exemplar with the same Type and IIDs. The group ID is different it is 0xa8fbd372 for all three. There is a developer exemplar for each growth stage with the same Type and IIDs. The group ID is different it is 67cd5fa1 for all three. The port size property is different for each growth stage 0x01   0x02   0x03. There are PNG and LTEXT files for each stage also.

One thing I just noticed is each growth stage has a plopable  lot stage 1 is local stage 2 is regional and stage 3 is international.      I plopped the international in my city.

There is a JENXAIRPORT_Dulles_Airport folder that contains the 3 SC4lot files and a JENXAIRPORT_Dulles dat file that has all the FSH and S3D files that start with IId 0x00030000. There is also a prop exemplar only for stage 3 it has the same type and group 0x6534284a and 0x7e9a60e7. The IID is 0xdea949bb5.

I have compared these to another file in this mod that does show the airport icon in the regional view Modern ATCT by Muzzy.

In the developer file The Num Growth stages is the same even though Muzzy has only 2 growth stages.

The lot stage template IDs are different but I am sure they should be.

The budget requirement list is different. 

Where does the region Icon come from The lot exemplar?? The building exemplar????

[rsc204 21,869]

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

The budget requirement list is different. 

This is simply the monthly cost of the item, so the values would likely be different.

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

The lot stage template IDs are different but I am sure they should be.

Indeed, they HAVE to be.

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

In the developer file The Num Growth stages is the same even though Muzzy has only 2 growth stages.

Perhaps, but the Muzzy one only has 1 growth stage set and both the Lot Exemplars are Growth Stage 1, plus the Lot Stage Template ID (and the Developer Exemplar in general) never even references the 2nd D02356EE Building/Lot combination. Put all that together and it means the 2nd stage could never show, probably a bug that, since you'd imagine if it's there and uniquely ID'd the intention was for it to upgrade.

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

Where does the region Icon come from The lot exemplar?? The building exemplar????

It could be literally any property that is common to Airports, which is why I'd be looking closely at the Developer Exemplars frankly. It could be in the Buildings Exemplar properties somewhere, the usual Occupant Groups all seem fine at first glance, but again Airport specific properties are the ones to look for. I can't see how it would be from the LotConfig Exemplar, but I can't say that with 100% certainty.

[atsf189 461]

Well this is very helpful. Thank you for looking at it.

I think I will try making a new lot with a known working Airport but using the Dulles Building.

What ever the problem is both the Dulles and JFK Airports are doing the same thing.

The menu query never shows them as being used either. The Muzzy Airport fills up almost immediately.

[atsf189 461]

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

It could be literally any property that is common to Airports, which is why I'd be looking closely at the Developer Exemplars frankly. It could be in the Buildings Exemplar properties somewhere, the usual Occupant Groups all seem fine at first glance, but again Airport specific properties are the ones to look for. I can't see how it would be from the LotConfig Exemplar, but I can't say that with 100% certainty.

I am not sure what I did but it works now.

I made a copy of the game international airport stage 1 lot in the lot editor.

I opened the old and new lot files up in reader.  I deleted the LotConfigPropertyLotObject and all the LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData files and then copied the LotConfigPropertyLotObject and all the LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData files from the old file and pasted them into the new file. I corrected the LotConfigPropertySize values.

I then reloaded the new file back into the lot editor and saved it. Started the game and the menu query showed it being used and after restarting the region view shows the airport icon. This also has a rail station in it and the tunnel was not lining up with the tracks so I copied LotConfigPropertyMaxSlopeBeforeLotFoundation   and  LotConfigPropertyMaxSlopeAllowed from the old file also.

It turned out that I needed to level the ground where in connects to the Dulles arrivals building (this acts as a bus stop) and then the tunnel lined up.

If any one wants to try it let me know if it works correct for you.

It will appear in the airport menu. It does NOT replace the original JENXAIRPORT_Dulles_Airport file

Dulles_AirportInternational1_0a512810.SC4Lot

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

19 hours ago, atsf189 said:

Where does the region Icon come from The lot exemplar??

Disclaimer First: I've only ever really examined the Maxis Seaports in depth, but the process appears identical for Maxis Airports. Also, I've never tinkered with custom content airport stuff other than my troubleshooting in the SFBT Airport Shuttle Lot Fix (City tile corruption prevention) post. So the following is my exploration of Maxis Airports only.

As you know, there is first the Master Airport Developer Exemplar (TGI: 6534284a-67cd5fa1-ca270e9d) which has "Port Type Exemplar IDs" (property 0x8A270FC3) which in turn contains the IIDs of the Airport sub controller exemplars. In the case of Maxis International Airports, their sub controller IID is the third entry in the master controller's "Port Type Exemplar IDs". That is a reference to the TGI: 6534284a-67cd5fa1-2a27163f exemplar as the sub controller for Maxis Large Airports. Then within that sub controller is the "Lot stage template IDs" (Property 0xCA271781) where its first entry is the IID of the LotConfigurations Exemplar for stage 1.

It's when that entry (0x0A512810 in this case) matches the IID (TGI: 6534284a-a8fbd372-0a512810) of the LotConfigurations that it'll get an Airport Icon in the Region Transportation view.

^ If you change that entry, the lot will still be ploppable, but no longer get the Airport Icon in the region view.

It's this chained sequence thru the 3 exemplars that makes the Airport functional and get the region icon. Then, ofc, there's a 4th exemplar in the sequence and within that is the Building Exemplar's "Lot Resource Key" (property 0xEA260589) which points back to the LotConfigurations. That makes it a two way reference for those last two exemplars as said Lot file has the Building IID in its 0x00000000 entry.

This latter part is important if you bulldoze the lot. The game checks its internal saved data which references the Building Exemplar info for reversing budget amounts (and other things like park and landmark effects, and such), but then uses that Lot Resource Key to also see if there is more sub file data to remove. That's why there was the CTD when bulldozing the SFBT Airport Shuttle because when it looked up the Lot Config it saw 0x0F (plopped lot) rather than 0x0B (airport) and so it wasn't tidying up the airport table information.)

[atsf189 461]

One thing I didn't think of is what is going to happen when it try's to go to the next stage of growth?

This Airport is part of the x-ports mod. It has its own Master Airport Developer Exemplar (TGI: 6534284a-67cd5fa1-ca270e9d)

The original files are in the Master Airport Developer Exemplar. This Airport appears to have 3 growth stages but I do not think the original Moder had them set up like the game Airport. You can plop each stage and the menu has them listed as local, regional and international.

The lot TGIs do not match your protocol (TGI: 6534284a-a8fbd372-8f24f57f) stage 3 lot

The building is (TGI: 6534284a-7e9a60e7-8f24f57f) stage 3 building

The Developer is (TGI: 6534284a-8f24f57f-8f24f57f) Developer stage 3

I wonder if the fix for the original file is to give the above 3 exemplars the Group ID of 67cd5fa1?

I just looked at the original building exemplar and there is not a Lot Resource Key property.

The working file has a LotConfigPropertyZoneTypes of 0x0B ( this is a b not an eight??).

The original file has a LotConfigPropertyZoneTypes of 0x00

The original developer may have had the CTD problem when using 0x0b and did not know you needed the Lot Resource Key property.

Not sure what you mean by in its 0x00000000 entry.

I added the Lot Resource Key property and changed LotConfigPropertyZoneType and the original file still does not work.

The original files master Airport Developer Exemplar is a little different but other airports in this do work correctly.

Would anything need to be added to the prop exemplar for the building?

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

The working file has a LotConfigPropertyZoneTypes of 0x0B ( this is a b not an eight??).

Yes, the indicator for an airport is 0x0B (not 8). I believe that should only be added for a functional airport. Otherwise the standard 0x0F is used for a plopped building.

 

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

Not sure what you mean by in its 0x00000000 entry.

In the list of LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData there will be a single one which starts with 0x00000000 and that is the info for the building on the lot. Every LotConfigurations Exemplar must have that entry at a minimum. (For things like the Open Grass where you don't see a building in the game, that's because Maxis created a special one. It's microscopic or something so it can be present, but not visible while playing.) The 13th entry in that property is the IID of the Building Exemplar.

• Ones that start with 0x00000001 are props.
• Ones that start with 0x00000002 are textures and these are the ones you can remove to have no base texture if that's desired. It's also what Maxis's Lot Editor will not allow.
• Ones that start with other numbers correspond to other things like transit enabled. Then there's special codes for terrain and water restrictions and such.

Showing the building entry:

 

4 hours ago, atsf189 said:

Would anything need to be added to the prop exemplar for the building?

For this and your other questions, I'll bow out because I'd have to spend a lot of time before I could know a correct answer.

 

[atsf189 461]

We must be getting close to finding the problem.

The working file and the broken file do not have any lines starting with 0x0000000 in LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData

I do have a LotConfigPropertyLotObject that starts with 0x0000000 and they are identical except for the last entry that is the IID

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

5 minutes ago, atsf189 said:

I do have a LotConfigPropertyLotObject that starts with 0x0000000

I believe that's ok. It seems Reader drops the word "Data" from the first property entry of that type and if that happens to be where the building one is, it would still be fine located there.

[atsf189 461]

Well I have a LotConfigPropertyLotObject  name value 0x88EDC908 like yours in both files it starts with 0x00000002

these lines are identical and maybe they shouldn't be.

good file

0x00000002,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x01180000,0x00000000,

0x00180000,0x01100000,0x00100000,0x01200000,0x00200000,0x00000000,0x00000008,0x258F2000

 

what part references what you are talking about?

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

2 minutes ago, atsf189 said:

0x88EDC908

Unlike all other exemplars, this particular entry is simply a consecutive number for Lot Object info so it doesn't mean that exact one by its Name Value number will be the building one.

You can tell the building one by its first entry being 0x00000000 wherever it is in the list.

[atsf189 461]

Could you break down what I am Looking for

This is my zero line and the bad file has the same info.

0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00C00CCD,0x00000000,0x00080CCC,

0x00BC0CCD,0x00040CCC,0x00C40CCD,0x000C0CCC,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x0A512810

[atsf189 461]

This has to match what?

0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00C00CCD,0x00000000,0x00080CCC,0x00BC0CCD,0x00040CCC,0x00C40CCD,0x000C0CCC,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x0A512810

[atsf189 461]

I am looking at to many numbers.

I get what you are saying and both files have this correct.

0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00C00CCD,0x00000000,0x00080CCC,0x00BC0CCD,0x00040CCC,0x00C40CCD,0x000C0CCC,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x0A512810

0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00C00CCD,0x00000000,0x00080CCC,0x00BC0CCD,0x00040CCC,0x00C40CCD,0x000C0CCC,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x8F24F57F

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

Most of those will be specific to your lot. For the corresponding entry for the Maxis Small International Airport (Stage 1) they mean:

 [1] = "0x00000000" is Building"
 [2] = "0x00000000" is Level of Detail"
 [3] = "0x00000003" is East"
 [4] = "0x0041E381" =  65.88868713 (X Location)"
 [5] = "0x00000000" =   0.00000000 (Z Location)"
 [6] = "0x00D81C7F" = 216.11131287 (Y Location)"
 [7] = "0x0029F04D" =  41.93867493 (Xmin Bounding Box)"
 [8] = "0x00B0294C" = 176.16131592 (Ymin Bounding Box)"
 [9] = "0x0059D6B4" =  89.83868408 (Xmax Bounding Box)"
[10] = "0x01000FB2" = 256.06130981 (Ymax Bounding Box)"
[11] = "0x00000000" is optional flags (usually not used)
[12] = "0xEAACA248" is unique object ID that Maxis understands
[13] = "0x03550000" is the IID of the Building Exemplar

[atsf189 461]

I have been looking at this two files for two days now and just can not see any difference between the working and none working file.

Would the game need run time to recognize the changes on the old file?? I have changed almost everything between the two files so the match.

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

1 minute ago, atsf189 said:

the working and none working file

I've gotten completely lost on what works and what doesn't between the two. Several posts ago I explained how the Airport Icon in the Region view gets triggered and I thought that was the issue to be resolved.

[atsf189 461]

Looking at the lot editor. It did create a new prop of the building when I saved it.

Where would this prop file be located?

[Cyclone Boom 17,033]

Just to add:

This wiki article has some additional info on the LotConfig property format in case it's useful:

https://www.wiki.sc4devotion.com/index.php?title=LotConfigPropertyLotObject

All this is very complicated admittedly. Anything with hex values adds a layer of complexity, and so this is how the Lot Editor comes in useful for editing all this on the fly. It technically is possible to lot edit by altering all these entries and values by hand in Reader, but that would be prone to error and isn't recommended.

Note: That for entries 4 thru 10 they are not a straight conversion from hex to decimal because the hex is split to have a hex portion that is decimal.
(That's a much more complex conversion.)

 

5 minutes ago, atsf189 said:

Would the game need run time to recognize the changes on the old file?

If already plopped, this would need bulldozing the lot (crucially with it installed in Plugins). Then save the tile, and plop the new lot.

A backup of the cities is highly advised just in case anything goes wrong.

[Cyclone Boom 17,033]

2 minutes ago, atsf189 said:

Where would this prop file be located?

Likely somewhere in Plugins (check in subfolders also).

DataNode might be useful to track it down.

[atsf189 461]

The lot is in plugins but I can not find the prop file anywhere.

Would the lot editor add this prop to a game dat file??

[rivit 3,404]

1 hour ago, atsf189 said:

Would the lot editor add this prop to a game dat file??

If you created the lot it in LE, then the result should be in the Root of the Plugins folder as a file on its own. You wont have created a Prop in LE,  LE expects that to exist so you can put it on a lot. The Icon for a lot is usually in the file that LE makes. If you go back into LE, make a small change (like adding a prop temporarily), reverse it and save it again it will remake the icon.

[rivit 3,404]

Apologies, I was too fast on the draw - misread the Icon for the Menu icon, not the item in Regional view.    Should have woken up properly first  8-(

[atsf189 461]

I am thinking the lot editor may have created new settings for the prop due to it having a new IID when you select it in the prop area. It looks like it does not work that way. The trouble has to be in the lot file.

I guess I will try changing the IIDs on the good lot and building files and pasting them into the SC4_Functional_Airports_V2.2 dat file. 

The problem is I don't how or what changed in the lot editor to make it work.

[atsf189 461]

The final outcome of all this is this:

I tried pasting the working Exemplars into SC4_Functional_Airports_V2.2 dat file and changing IIDs to the original IIDs. The airport still did not work. I did change the Lot Resource Key property with the original IID.

I changed the IIDs of Lot Exemplar and the building Exemplar from the working files to a completely new IID. This had to be done because the lot I used in the Lot editor was the game international airport.  The lot editor kept the old IID of the international airport so I was overriding the game file and using the game Master Airport Developer Exemplar.

I added the Lot Exemplar and the building Exemplar and changed the IID on the original Developer Exemplar to match with the new IID. This was all done in the SC4_Functional_Airports_V2.2 dat file. I added the new IID to the Master Airport Developer Exemplar in the SC4_Functional_Airports_V2.2 dat file. I removed the old Lot Exemplar and the building exemplar and their IID from the Master Airport Developer Exemplar. I change the 2 LTEXT files to reflect the new IIDs.

The airport works now. The query menu shows it being used and it has an icon in the region view.

I saw another post with the Jenx JFK airport with the same problem.

I will see if I can fix all 6 of these and maybe the creator of the x-ports can use my updated SC4_Functional_Airports_V2.2 dat file for a patch. The enabler file also needed changing of the IID. This is basically a copy of the building exemplar.

I still do not know what got changed in the working exemplars to make it work.

[rivit 3,404]

Well done, thats not exactly the easiest thing to unravel.

[atsf189 461]

On 3/25/2022 at 2:35 PM, rsc204 said:

type the @ key and then their site user name.

@rsc204, @rivit, @Cyclone Boom, @CorinaMarie, @Tyberius06, @ulisse

I think I figured out the Missing Icon problem with the JENXAIRPORT Dulles Airports.

They were set up as three growth stages:

Stage 1 Dulles Local Departure

Stage 2 Dulles Regional Departure

Stage 3 Dulles International Departure

They all had the Lot Config 0x0F (plopped lot) rather than 0x0B (airport)

Stage 2 and 3 lot files showed as being growth stage 2 and 3 but the Developer Exemplar showed only one growth stage. When I changed Stage 2 and 3 to growth stage 1 the icon appeared and the airport started working. I changed them back to 2 and 3 and loaded the game and no airport icon.

I will check the JFK airports and see if they are the same.

The IId change I think was not the problem because later on the stage 3 got changed in the lot editor to stage 1. I have not returned them back to their original IID yet but will when I get time

[atsf189 461]

The JFK Airport had the wrong growth stage setting on the lot file also.

The JKK Airport Developer Exemplar had the wrong IID in the Lot stage template IDs property.

The Dulles Airports have their original IIDs restored and work good now.