BAT4Blender

[Koonam 519]

Hello! I have a question.

I pressed 'Render all zooms & rotations' to render, but which folder will the file be created after rendering is finished? I looked in the Plugins folder in the Simcity4 folder, but it wasn't there.

[Dono 178]

10 hours ago, Koonam said:

Hello! I have a question.

I pressed 'Render all zooms & rotations' to render, but which folder will the file be created after rendering is finished? I looked in the Plugins folder in the Simcity4 folder, but it wasn't there.

It will be in the folder where you store your Blender files, specifically where the .blend file of the object that you rendered is. There will also be an XML file with it if you want to add it to the model file manually.

[Koonam 519]

2 hours ago, Dono said:

It will be in the folder where you store your Blender files, specifically where the .blend file of the object that you rendered is. There will also be an XML file with it if you want to add it to the model file manually.

Oh! Thank you so much Dono! I found it  

[Koonam 519]

Sorry that I'm asking too much... But I got a problem about exported .SC4Model files.

Those files have 1KB size and they don't appear in SC4 Plug-in Manager even though I put them in the Documents - SimCity 4 - Plugin folder.

Does anyone know a solution?

[Dono 178]

@Koonam I'm probably not the best help but either way, the files are way too small, for instance my basic lot length fence is 115KB. I'd recheck that you're rendering in Cycles and everything is setup as in the description/readme file for BAT4Blender. If all that is ok check the object your rendering is still in the LODs...you can delete the LODs (Under the Preview button) then just press the Add button to reset them. Make sure all the Objects you are rendering in the Outliner (where the Scene Collection is) have the camera icon highlighted as this is what's being rendered, we don't render the LODs so don't highlight them or you'll get white boxes.

[Koonam 519]

42 minutes ago, Dono said:

@Koonam I'm probably not the best help but either way, the files are way too small, for instance my basic lot length fence is 115KB. I'd recheck that you're rendering in Cycles and everything is setup as in the description/readme file for BAT4Blender. If all that is ok check the object your rendering is still in the LODs...you can delete the LODs (Under the Preview button) then just press the Add button to reset them. Make sure all the Objects you are rendering in the Outliner (where the Scene Collection is) have the camera icon highlighted as this is what's being rendered, we don't render the LODs so don't highlight them or you'll get white boxes.

I tried re-adding LODs and Camera and I highlighted the camera. However, the issue has not been resolved.😭

[Dono 178]

@Koonam Sorry, I'm still using the prior BAT4Blender as I'm 3/4 finished a project and didn't want to chance anything. As you're not getting an error code I assume you have the ImageMagick and fshgen files setup correctly under the Super Sampling and Post-Processing tabs. If anything else comes to mind I'll yell out.

[Koonam 519]

8 minutes ago, Dono said:

@Koonam Sorry, I'm still using the prior BAT4Blender as I'm 3/4 finished a project and didn't want to chance anything. As you're not getting an error code I assume you have the ImageMagick and fshgen files setup correctly under the Super Sampling and Post-Processing tabs. If anything else comes to mind I'll yell out.

Thank you Dono!

I have fshgen but not imageMagic. I didn't check Super Sampling's check box, should I need imageMagic for exporting?

[Dono 178]

2 minutes ago, Koonam said:

Thank you Dono!

I have fshgen but not imageMagic. I didn't check Super Sampling's check box, should I need imageMagic for exporting?

Yeah, it's apart of the render process. Hope that's it 

[Koonam 519]

57 minutes ago, Dono said:

Yeah, it's apart of the render process. Hope that's it 

Oh no... It still doesn't work.😭 .SC4Model is still 1KB size and not showing up in SC4 PIM...

[Dono 178]

22 hours ago, Koonam said:

Oh no... It still doesn't work.😭 .SC4Model is still 1KB size and not showing up in SC4 PIM...

Looks like you've had a few missing things so it's hard to know if you have something else missing or if it's a BAT4Blender issue, getting above my pay grade lol. Have you tried just a Day&MN render on its own instead of the combined render where you get the 2 files.

[Koonam 519]

10 minutes ago, Dono said:

Looks like you've had a few missing things so it's had to know if you have something else missing or if it's a BAT4Blender issue, getting above my pay grade lol. Have you tried just a Day&MN render on its own instead of the combined render where you get the 2 files.

No I didn't do that option... I'll try about that later when I got the break time  

[Koonam 519]

8 hours ago, Dono said:

Looks like you've had a few missing things so it's had to know if you have something else missing or if it's a BAT4Blender issue, getting above my pay grade lol. Have you tried just a Day&MN render on its own instead of the combined render where you get the 2 files.

I did the Day&MN option. But the result file(.SC4Model)is still 1KB and not showing up in PIM 😂

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

2 hours ago, Koonam said:

I did the Day&MN option. But the result file(.SC4Model)is still 1KB and not showing up in PIM 😂

Have you installed FSHgen?

https://github.com/memo33/fshgen/releases

[Koonam 519]

52 minutes ago, Ulisse Wolf said:

Have you installed FSHgen?

https://github.com/memo33/fshgen/releases

Yes, I already installed it about a month ago.

[Dono 178]

4 hours ago, Koonam said:

Yes, I already installed it about a month ago.

Unsure, but a month ago would put it being installed in the old version of BAT4Blender, I'd remove it and then reinstall again. It's worth the try.

[Koonam 519]

1 hour ago, Dono said:

Unsure, but a month ago would put it being installed in the old version of BAT4Blender, I'd remove it and then reinstall again. It's worth the try.

Oops, sorry! Both BAT4Blender and fshgen are latest version. I misremembered the date I downloaded it.

[Dono 178]

3 hours ago, Koonam said:

Oops, sorry! Both BAT4Blender and fshgen are latest version. I misremembered the date I downloaded it.

Unless one of the guru's come to you with an answer, if it was me I'd uninstall the lot and start fresh, I did see in some posts back you started to follow the instructions for changing Nodes (for advanced users), who knows, you might have missed replacing a string when restoring it and it has failed. At least if you start over you'll catch those pieces we found you missed in our prior conversations. It's just come to mind too that Blender has just done an update to version 5....if you got that, it could be the issue, at the time of the recent BAT4Blender updates I think Blender was at 4.5..I'm running 4.5.3. Hope whatever direction you choose, you get it to work.

[Koonam 519]

5 hours ago, Dono said:

Unless one of the guru's come to you with an answer, if it was me I'd uninstall the lot and start fresh, I did see in some posts back you started to follow the instructions for changing Nodes (for advanced users), who knows, you might have missed replacing a string when restoring it and it has failed. At least if you start over you'll catch those pieces we found you missed in our prior conversations. It's just come to mind too that Blender has just done an update to version 5....if you got that, it could be the issue, at the time of the recent BAT4Blender updates I think Blender was at 4.5..I'm running 4.5.3. Hope whatever direction you choose, you get it to work.

Hmm... I have something to check. Did I put Imagemagick and fshgen in the blank properly in the next captured picture?

[Dono 178]

@Koonam  @memo Hey, I'm not sure how you went but I just downloaded Blender 5 and I couldn't get BAT4Blender 0.5.0 to work on it (bad time for similar version numbers), I believe it has something to do with the Compositing addition to the new BAT4Blender, although I could be wrong. I uninstalled 5 and installed Blender 4.5.3 and it worked straight away.

[Koonam 519]

43 minutes ago, Dono said:

@Koonam  @memo Hey, I'm not sure how you went but I just downloaded Blender 5 and I couldn't get BAT4Blender 0.5.0 to work on it (bad time for similar version numbers), I believe it has something to do with the Compositing addition to the new BAT4Blender, although I could be wrong. I uninstalled 5 and installed Blender 4.5.3 and it worked straight away.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not an expert, so I'm not sure how to fix the technical problem with Blender. And I'm using the 3.6.3 version of Blender.

[Dono 178]

54 minutes ago, Koonam said:

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not an expert, so I'm not sure how to fix the technical problem with Blender. And I'm using the 3.6.3 version of Blender.

That's ok  I misread that you were using the latest version so I tried "Blender 5.0" and it failed for me so someone else might have to confirm that one. I know the original AceFantastic02 lighting rig didn't work on anything under Blender 4.5, but as it's now incorporated in the new BAT4Blender I assume memo would have compensated for it as the readme says 3.6 should be ok. As I got Blender 4.5.3 to work all I can recommend is deleting 3.6 and and install 4.5.3. Or if you want to stay with 3.6, triple check you have installed everything correctly, chosen Cycles as the render engine, etc.

 

[rose 40]

this program is GREAT. thanks for allowing stupid questions in your dev thread 

i've reached nearly the endpoint where i'm adding the xml to the model file in Reader. i've edited the TGI of the undefined file based on the xml file name as instructed.

the item becomes a UI file which crashes Reader when i click on it, and Save / Save As are greyed out.
any advice? 

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

2 hours ago, rose said:

the item becomes a UI file which crashes Reader when i click on it, and Save / Save As are greyed out.
any advice?

Once you have inserted the XML file, you need to set the TGI. Once you have done this, save the file and open it again. This will solve the problem.

[rose 40]

turns out the problem is that you have to click into the box with all the subfiles before the Save option becomes available. silly me.

but it was successful creating the building, lot, and imported into the game 
the in-game model still looks wrong compared to the preview render so I'll have to get better at understanding Blender rendering and shaders etc.

[Koonam 519]

I tried rendering in Blender 4.5.3 but the exported file still 1KB and not showing up in PIM.... Is there anything I missed? or should I have to combine .xml file to .SC4Model file first and open it in PIM?

[Dono 178]

1 hour ago, Koonam said:

I tried rendering in Blender 4.5.3 but the exported file still 1KB and not showing up in PIM.... Is there anything I missed? or should I have to combine .xml file to .SC4Model file first and open it in PIM?

No, the XML won't effect the render, it doesn't effect much initially, mostly how some of the modding tools sees the item (for example Maxis PIM needs it to see the item so you can add it to a lot etc) but ingame has little effect if any.

[memo 1,445]

Everyone, please, if you need help or something needs fixing, remember to mention all the relevant details. Otherwise, it's impossible to help. “It doesn't work” doesn't cut it.

@Koonam The sole purpose of the XML file is to make the model compatible with PIM. It's not needed for anything other than PIM. Otherwise, use PIM-X instead. If you think the SC4Model file is too small, check its contents with ilive's Reader to see if the model is complete. Maybe the scale of your model is just very small. If S3D or FSH files are missing, try renaming your blend file so it doesn't use spaces (usually that shouldn't be a problem). If the issue remains, try disabling post-processing to see if Blender correctly saves the exported PNG and OBJ files when rendering. Also try to locate the system console where BAT4Blender logs progress about the exported files and check for potential errors there.

@rose Normally the preview render should look pretty much the same as the model in game. Small artifacts are expected due to DXT compression as well as due to the lack of semi-transparent pixels around the edges. These artifacts are unrelated to the shading though. Usually, they are not too noticeable, but in case of your billboard with text and fine details, the DXT compression leads to some loss of details. Also, the model in your in-game screenshot is about 15% larger than your preview image, which leads to additional artifacts from upscaling. Did you use the SizeOf cheat for that? Additionally, the screenshot contains JPEG artifacts which worsen the image quality. And your LOD doesn't cover the top of the model.

 

 

[Koonam 519]

@memo Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll explain the situation in more details.

I downloaded 'ilive Reader' and checked the SC4Model file, but it didn't have any contents. There wasn't any obj or fsh, and it was completely empty. I created a new blender file with nothing at all, imported the model, and rendered it, but the results were the same.

So I opened the system console in version 3.6.3(Blender), selected Day&MN, and pressed Render all zooms & rotations to run export. (I saved all the records of the system console as txt files and attached them here.) The weird characters in the middle of the log are probably folder names in different languages. And I see the phrase 'NO NODES!' in a certain view render, so maybe that seems to be the cause of the problem.

System Console Record.txt

[memo 1,445]

@Koonam Thanks. That is very useful information. The log shows that there is a character encoding problem for the Korean characters indeed.

To fix this, either upgrade to the latest Java version 25 (or at least version 18+), or make this change to the fshgen.bat file.