Allow More Building Styles - DLL Plugin

[Propfam 2,288]

3 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I would just leave out key options that are indeed essential to the style choice and management rather than add a whole, long list of checkboxes.

Totally agree. In fact, in many UI guidelines, you have to limit choice and if you can't really reduce it, you have to hide them. SC4 also does this by using separate panels, including the building styles panel itself. Clutter only discourages new users away, just take a look at pre-34 NAM.

[Null 45 3,041]

4 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

If it was up to me (and it isn't obviously...)

All the additional check boxes and radio buttons are optional, and you can use whichever ones you like in your own Building Style Control.

46 minutes ago, Jidan said:

Totally agree. In fact, in many UI guidelines, you have to limit choice and if you can't really reduce it, you have to hide them.

All the UI reserved check boxes in @CorinaMarie's UI should have been automatically hidden, the fact that they are not appears to indicate that they are not using the correct ids for the DLL to recognize them as part of the 'reserved for future use' range. Microsoft 's UI guidelines for Check Boxes state that large numbers of check boxes should be condensed into a 'check box list' control (basically a combo box/drop down list with check boxes), but AFAIK SC4's UI framework doesn't have an equivalent control.

I have considered adding the option to replace the W2W radio buttons with a combo box, but the slight savings that would bring in vertical space are largely negated by the complexity of adding and using a combo box.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 hour ago, Null 45 said:

All the UI reserved check boxes in @CorinaMarie's UI should have been automatically hidden, the fact that they are not appears to indicate that they are not using the correct ids for the DLL to recognize them as part of the 'reserved for future use' range.

This is jumping the gun a bit. You are replying to a draft picture of a work in progress as if it were a completed project.

I am setting up LText for each future option and will be adding hover overs too. It's best for me if I can see them while working on the UI. In the pic in question from above, four of the reserved options are currently getting their text directly from the caption= part of the UI which is also why I mentioned that the verbiage is different from "LText Reserved" so I can be sure at each step it's all working properly.

Here's a quick sample using @carlosmarcelo's LText file and making the remaining 5 future options use the reserved IDs:

 

5 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I would just leave out key options that are indeed essential to the style choice and management rather than add a whole, long list of checkboxes.

• Disable aggr.
• Disable subdiv.
• Prevent x-style redevelopment
• W2W and standard
• W2W only
• W2W blocked

Would be (and are) the only options I care about in this mod. There are already just too many ideas put together here...

So your complaint is that Auto-Growify, Auto-Historical, and No Kick Out Lower Wealth are included?

There's no other DLL which is better suited to have those options and no other control panel where they'd be better located.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Continuing on in draft mode, what do you think about moving the newer controls to the left so they line up with the lower section?

I feel like it's more visually pleasing that all controls on the left line up vertically. However, we don't want to do that for the right column or it'll short change them for text space they might need in the future.

[Null 45 3,041]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

This is jumping the gun a bit. You are replying to a draft picture of a work in progress as if it were a completed project.

Sorry, I didn't realize it was a draft.

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

There's no other DLL which is better suited to have those options and no other control panel where they'd be better located.

Agreed, and as I previously mentioned, if you feel strongly about which optional controls to use you can always make your own version of the Building Style Control.

42 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I feel like it's more visually pleasing that all controls on the left line up vertically. However, we don't want to do that for the right column or it'll short change them for text space they might need in the future.

Unless you enlarge the popup window to preserve the same amount of space on the right before aligning the controls. But that may cause its own visual issues.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

I might have time to work on the UI again if RL doesn't interrupt.

CB made a mock up suggesting better symmetry:

This requires the Change style every / Alterar estilo a cada would be scrunched up. It's fine for these two languages. Others might need to use succinct alternatives.

With this in mind, should the left-hand styles column also be moved to the left to line up with the control options?

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

22 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

So your complaint is that Auto-Growify, Auto-Historical, and No Kick Out Lower Wealth are included?

There's no other DLL which is better suited to have those options and no other control panel where they'd be better located.

It's not a complaint. A concern rather!

For example, I don't really understand why an NKO checkbox should be available in a building style mod... After all, NKO is an essential mod which fixes a vital part of the game's simulation. I can't think of any situation where I would like NKO to not be enabled. And even if I would, I would simply put it out of the plugins folder...

My point as a whole is that if we keep adding yet newer options and checkboxes within this single file, to account for all types of events and play styles, the reason for which the .dll was created (additional building styles) will be obscured. Dwarfed by the myriad of additional options and variables. I always thought that it is better to have many standalone opt-out options rather than few "all inclusives" (a reason why, for example, I never installed industrial revolution mod).

Soon, someone may ask to provide extra controls for SPAM or some other mod. But is it feasible?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 minutes ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I can't think of any situation where I would like NKO to not be enabled.

I'm firmly in this camp too, but I'll bet if we had a poll asking how many peeps use NKO, I've got a feeling we'd lose with only about 5% of the vote. My initial reaction was also: Why the hell do we need that as a checkbox?!? But then I realized this might be a very good way for peeps to test it and become accustomed to using it. They'll be able see the control difference it makes in real time.

 

10 minutes ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

My point as a whole is that if we keep adding yet newer options and checkboxes within this single file, to account for all types of events and play styles, the reason for which the .dll was created (additional building styles) will be obscured.

Here the beauty of Null's method comes to light. The defaults for new options are the Maxis method or, in the case of NKO, the presence in plugins. So each one is indeed opt-in. You won't need to use them if they don't suit your play style.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

We are looking at alignment only:

 

The extra reserved options will become invisible once I've assigned them their two LText references.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Ok. I believe I have it all ready with the exception of finalizing the exact verbiage for each hover over. For this draft version, I've mostly used Null's text from the DLL's description on the STEX and then embellished it a wee bit when it felt necessary:

Auto-Growify
Automatically convert plopped growables to use a growable zone type. The growified lots will be marked as historical based on the value of the Auto-Historical checkbox.

Auto-Historical
Automatically mark growable lots that use the active building styles as historical when SC4 creates them. Industrial buildings are only marked as historical if industrial building styles are enabled for that building type.

Build all at once
Chose randomly from all enabled styles when building.

Change style every
Build one active style at a time. Cycles to a new style after the specified number of years if more than one building style is active.

W2W and Standard
Both W2W and non-W2W buildings will be built. This is SC4's default behavior.

W2W Only
Only W2W buildings will be built. (Requires properly modified building exemplars.)

W2W Blocked
No W2W buildings will be built. (Requires properly modified building exemplars.)

No Kick Out Lower Wealth
Mayor controlled gentrification enabled. This allows for much finer control of the city simulation growth. When checked, higher wealth properties cannot kick out lower wealth. This fixes a slew of bugs present in the original Maxis game.

Disable Lot Aggregation
In residential and commercial zones, this stops the game from combining multiple smaller lots into a larger lot.

Disable Lot Subdivision
Forces SC4 to only pick residential or commercial lots which are the same size or larger than the zoned area. Note: In order for the game to choose a lot larger than the zoned area, there would need to be additional identical zoning adjacent. Also the "Disable Lot Aggregation" would need to be unchecked.

Prevent Cross-Style Redevelopment
Discourages the game from replacing an existing lot with one from a different building style.

 

So, are we happy with this? Should we tweak any of them?

And a final draft pic:

^ Do note the upper part for the Styles is controlled by entries in the INI file.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

Good for me

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

I believe this is ready to go!

CoriBoom's 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45 Gamma (For Use with Null's DLL).dat

It now includes all the English LText inside the file so you can get rid of both previous ones I've posted. It also contains hidden slots for IDs 0x105, 0x106, 0x107, 0x108, and 0x109 which will automatically activate should Null add additional features which use them. In such an event, one can simply modify the already associated LText and no UI changes will be needed.

I want to thank CB for creating the original expanded UI from which I learned how to tweak the code. So: Thank you @Cyclone Boom for your original creation from which I made this new version.

[carlosmarcelo 975]

Hi guys!  I finished translate this interface options and hover tips and below we can see a small sample:

The ltext file with translated texts to use together of the CoriBoom UI file, you can download here: Carlos - Building Styles UI v0.44 for use with dll ltext ptbr.dat.  

Thanks CoriBoom for assistance and creation of interface.

 

Cori Edit: Carlos's attached file showing v0.44 is also perfectly fine with my v0.45 posted UI. (I'd sent the v0.44 in a PM for him and then since I made a few changes before posting in this topic, I incremented the number.)

Cori Edit Too: I've now updated the GIDs so Carlos's translation are their own set. See two posts below.

  Edited November 20, 2024 by CorinaMarie  
Added notes about version numbers and GIDs.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

5 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I believe this is ready to go!

CoriBoom's 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45 Gamma (For Use with Null's DLL).dat

It now includes all the English LText inside the file so you can get rid of both previous ones I've posted. It also contains hidden slots for IDs 0x105, 0x106, 0x107, 0x108, and 0x109 which will automatically activate should Null add additional features which use them. In such an event, one can simply modify the already associated LText and no UI changes will be needed.

I want to thank CB for creating the original expanded UI from which I learned how to tweak the code. So: Thank you @Cyclone Boom for your original creation from which I made this new version.

Here is the Italian translation

CoriBoom's 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45 ITA Gamma (For Use with Null's DLL).dat

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

11 hours ago, carlosmarcelo said:

I finished translate this interface options and hover tips ...

Thanks!

One thing I deliberately didn't mention before is that for the final release your translation will need the GID of each LText updated. There's a cool topic about that here. And the reason I held back for saying this is so I could see your translations in my game without needing to tell my whole game to speak Portuguese everywhere.

Now that we are getting ready for an official version of the Building Styles UI, I've updated them.

For reference it's done using the TGI Editor found in the Tools menu of Reader 0.9.3. The English text uses 0x6a231eaa for the Group ID. Adding 0x23 to that we get 0x6a231ecd for Portuguese (Brazilian). With the TGI Editor open in your file, I clicked inside the Group box and at the right side of the ########,  then backspaced twice. Next I typed in CD since that's the only part which needs changed. Note: It must be upper case or the editor will curse at you (albeit in a musical tone). Then you have to single click the top entry in the list of TGIs, scroll down to the bottom, Shift+Click the last one, and once all of them are highlighted in blue, click the Apply button.

 

And now they are all updated:

 

So next if you'd like to test: Grab my v0.45 UI file above (which now has the English LText inside) and this updated file (while removing all others from your plugins).

Carlos - Building Styles UI v0.45 for use with dll ltext ptbr (New GID).dat

It will not need to load after the UI since it will not be overriding any LText. It'll be its own separate set and will only be activated when your game speaks your language.

 

7 hours ago, Ulisse Wolf said:

Here is the Italian translation

Thanks too! And I see you already did the GID offset to 0x6a231eaf for Italian.

[Propfam 2,288]

@CorinaMarie and @Null 45, do you have plans to make translations automatically available depending the language the game uses? I mean, like lot and prop LTEXT and something like that. So, we don't need to run separate files for different languages.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@Jidan Yep. Every submission of a translation gets its own GID offset so all languages can be present at the same time and it'll use whichever one your game is set to. However, we currently only have Portuguese and Italian submitted (in addition to the English embedded in my .dat). There's no set date for when they will all be packaged into one final file since I don't feel like doing it multiple times. I'll just sit back and wait for them to all stack up until every language is represented.

Or if someone is feeling froggy and wants to spearhead the language part, that's fine with me. (I tend to lose interest once the challenging parts are completed. )

[carlosmarcelo 975]

8 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

So next if you'd like to test: Grab my v0.45 UI file above (which now has the English LText inside) and this updated file (while removing all others from you plugins).

Thanks for explain and adjust the pt-br file.  Now, after of to do my "work" ,  I could test agregation and subdivision in my test city.

In this small city, I have a minimal plugins, without others RCI buildings, there are just maxis standart RCI buildings and When I used this options:

I expected the result was not aggregation, preserving divisions, but, the city started like this:

It was like this:

Image of zone view, with lots agreggated. 

In the same city restarted, I did other lot subdivions to start:

In this tests, I created larger lots. I tested "Disable lot subdivision" alone and this works well, however, when I tested both checked:

Not happen subdivision, but happen aggregation:

@Null 45 or someone, I understood something wrong or I not knowing how to use something?  

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

21 minutes ago, carlosmarcelo said:

... or someone, I understood something wrong or I not knowing how to use something?  

Someone here.

My own understanding is the aggregation and subdivision aspects are for already grown lots. So like you might have two 1 x 3 Tiny Houses grown on medium density zoning and they have water. Later when there is enough demand, the Maxis way is to aggregate (combine) those two lots into one larger 2 x 3 and then grow an apartment.

The subdivision is like you have grown a very low density motel on a 3 x 2 lot and then as demand increases the Maxis method is to destroy that and subdivide it into three 1 x 2 lots and grow a small department store on each one.

I'm fairly certain neither apply to the suggested zoning as you've shown.

[carlosmarcelo 975]

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

aggregation and subdivision aspects are for already grown lots.

It makes sense: my examples was with empty zones. So, we can conclude that options (aggregate and subdivide) works just with growed lots? 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

22 minutes ago, carlosmarcelo said:

So, we can conclude that options (aggregate and subdivide) works just with growed lots? 

I haven't yet had time to thoroughly test that part, but it seems likely it'll be fine.

[Null 45 3,041]

22 minutes ago, carlosmarcelo said:

It makes sense: my examples was with empty zones. So, we can conclude that options (aggregate and subdivide) works just with growed lots? 

It also applies to empty zones, but it can appear to have no effect because the game will leave the zone empty if none of its choices are a match.

The following image shows 2x2 lots with subdivision disabled, the game doesn't build anything due to not picking any matching 2x2 or larger lots.

Once subdivision is re-enabled, it splits the 2x2 lots into 1x2 and fills them.

[carlosmarcelo 975]

Thanks for answer, null 45 and Cori! 

17 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I haven't yet had time to thoroughly test that part, but it seems likely it'll be fine.

I believe that. I will test more in soon...

16 hours ago, Null 45 said:

It also applies to empty zones, but it can appear to have no effect because the game will leave the zone empty if none of its choices are a match.

I did all tests in empty zones, starting a city, year 0. To show how were divisions after some years passed, I snapshot or of the zone view or after to pause and to demolish builds.

17 hours ago, Null 45 said:

The following image shows 2x2 lots with subdivision disabled, the game doesn't build anything due to not picking any matching 2x2 or larger lots.

Yes, in my tests, subdivision works well too, but aggregation, not.  I will create a small e more simple city to test too.

[amrdonna77 14]

Hello everyone,

From what I understand CoriBoom's 32 slot UI file is supposed to be replace the OG UI without me having to do it manually in iLiveReader. 

Therefore, I’ve been trying to get Null's SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dll to work alongside CoriBoom’s 32 Slot UI, but I’m facing some issues. Here’s what I’ve done so far and the problems I’m running into.

What I’ve Done:

Installed the required files:

SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dll in Documents\SimCity 4\

SC4MoreBuildingStyles.ini and BuildingStyles.ini in Documents\SimCity 4\

Z_CoriBoom’s 32 Slot Building Styles UI.dat in Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\

Verified the BuildingStyles.ini file:

It contains multiple custom style IDs.

Checked in iLive Reader:

The .dat file contains extra checkboxes.

Launched SimCity 4:

The game still only shows the default 4 building styles (Chicago, New York, Houston, and European).

None of the additional checkboxes appear in the Building Style Control UI.

Issues & Questions:

Why isn’t the modified UI overriding the default UI?

The UI .dat file is in Plugins, but the game still loads the old UI.

Does SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dll require any special conditions to activate?

The .dll is in Documents\SimCity 4\, but how can I confirm if it’s actually loaded?

Does BuildingStyles.ini need any extra formatting?

Is there a way to force SimCity 4 to recognize the new UI?

Itried renaming the .dat file with a "Z" to load last.

Would placing it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Plugins\ help?

I’d appreciate any guidance on what might be going wrong.

Thanks in advance! 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

8 minutes ago, amrdonna77 said:

SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dll in Documents\SimCity 4\

SC4MoreBuildingStyles.ini and BuildingStyles.ini in Documents\SimCity 4\

I believe this is the trouble. Those also need to go in Plugins. Ideally, the install folder plugins, but I believe either will work.

 

8 minutes ago, amrdonna77 said:

Would placing it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Plugins\ help?

Yes.

[Andreas Roth 607]

Apart from the Submenus DLL, this is probably one of the most exciting developments lately.  I didn't have the time to read thoroughly through this thread or a tutorial how to assign new building styles, let alone try the features of this plugin, but I found @CorinaMarie's "Gamma" version of the new UI and translated all the LTEXTs into German (with proper ID scheme). I've added them to the original file, which is attached below. Sometimes, I had to be a bit creative not to break the UI, but I think it turned out nicely.

I definitely will try the W2W options, as this used to be a bit annoying in the past. I was zoning mid and high density zones in a "zebra crossing" pattern, which worked fine for the game to pick 1x2 (or 1x3) lots only, but this was quite a chore, and not reliable in every case. Now we can simply toggle through the various options, and develop W2W quarters easily. The "No Kick Out Lower Wealth" option is a great development as well, since I used to mark at least the larger lower wealth buildings as historical everytime, because those were later redeveloped in higher wealth buildings, destroying my precious pre-fab quarters... 

Also, I'm definitely curious about the zone aggregation/subdivision options. One of the most annoying things when trying to get a decent skyline was the game splitting a 5x4 zone that would be the perfect spot for a nice skyscraper and place some low-wealth stuff just because the demand or another thing wasn't just right for a proper development. This could be useful for keeping W2W development intact as well, too, without using the "Mark historical" option in the query all too much.

CoriBoom's 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45 DE Gamma (For Use with Null's DLL).dat

[Null 45 3,041]

40 minutes ago, Andreas Roth said:

a tutorial how to assign new building styles

AFAIK no one has written a tutorial on that yet. I recently rewrote the DLL's GitHub readme to provide better documentation on the process of assigning building styles to new or existing buildings, but those instructions still require the user to be familiar with how to use the Reader.

That rewrite will eventually be copied over to ST, but I am expecting that it will be getting a few more revisions.

[amrdonna77 14]

@CorinaMarie Sorry to bother you once again. The old UI still loads  with only the default four Maxis styles are visible.

What I’ve Done So Far:

1. Placed the required files in the correct locations:

   • SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dll, SC4MoreBuildingStyles.ini, and BuildingStyles.ini are in:
     C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Plugins\
   • I also tried placing them in Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\, but no change.

2. The log file (SC4MoreBuildingStyles.log) is being created.

   • This confirms that the .dll is loading correctly.
   • However, my custom styles are not showing up in the UI.

3. Updated BuildingStyles.ini to match my assigned style ID

   My BuildingStyles.ini currently looks like this:

    

4. Tested with CoriBoom’s UI template (Z_CoriBoom’s 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45.dat).

   • The UI still shows only the original four styles.
   • The additional styles do not appear.

What I Need Help With:

• Does my BuildingStyles.ini look correct?
• How do I ensure that the game is actually using the new UI template and not defaulting to the original?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

21 minutes ago, amrdonna77 said:

Tested with CoriBoom’s UI template (Z_CoriBoom’s 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45.dat).

I'm not sure now what the difference might be, but in my post above, I made the file name a wee bit different as:

CoriBoom's 32 Slot Building Styles UI - v0.45 Gamma (For Use with Null's DLL).dat

 

23 minutes ago, amrdonna77 said:

Does my BuildingStyles.ini look correct?

That looks visually correct, but it's an image. If you would post it as plain text I could try it in my game.

 

24 minutes ago, amrdonna77 said:

How do I ensure that the game is actually using the new UI template and not defaulting to the original?

Even before opening the full panel, you will see the additional choices like this if ours is overriding properly:

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Oh!

I think I see the trouble. After the first 4 lines your new building styles are not in the 0x00002000 family.

Just for funzies, try mine:

[BuildingStyles]
0 = 0x2004,N,Paris 1890
1 = 0x2005,N,Berlin 1910
2 = 0x2006,N,Rome 1750
3 = 0x2007,N,Eastern European 1970
4 = 0x2008,N,Brutalist
5 = 0x2009,N,Hong Kong Contemporary
6 = 0x200A,N,East Asian Modern
7 = 0x200B,N,East Asian Traditional
8 = 0x200C,N,American Suburban
9 = 0x200D,N,American Contemporary
10 = 0x200E,N,Latin American Contemporary
11 = 0x200F,N,Mexico 1980
12 = 0x2010,N,Futuristic
13 = 0x2011,N,0x2011 from INI
14 = 0x2012,N,0x2012 from INI
15 = 0x2013,N,0x2013 from INI
16 = 0x2014,N,0x2014 from INI
18 = 0x2016,N,0x2015 from INI
19 = 0x2017,N,0x2016 from INI
20 = 0x2018,N,0x2017 from INI
17 = 0x2015,N,0x2018 from INI
21 = 0x2019,N,0x2019 from INI
22 = 0x201A,N,0x201A from INI
23 = 0x201B,N,0x201B from INI
24 = 0x201C,N,0x201C from INI
25 = 0x201D,N,0x201D from INI
26 = 0x201E,N,0x201E from INI
27 = 0x201F,N,0x201F from INI