FSH textures not listed in Lot Editor

[TheMurderousCricket 5,113]

Hi All,

I successfully created a set of .fsh textures but they won't show up as either overlay or base when I browse in Lot Editor.

I first created a 768x768 bmp image, exported as a 24-bit .bmp file.

Then, I loaded it into GoFsh and used "Slice and Dice" option to cut it into 256x256 pieces which it did.

Lastly, I used the FSH <> Dat (I think?) option to create a single .dat containing all images in all zoom levels.

Unfortunately, the slices created this way are not detected by the game and I'm not sure why. Any guess what could have gone wrong or if I missed some key step?

[rsc204 21,867]

What is inside your DAT file? Step one is to check the textures exist as expected with the right IDs.

I will note that the Maxis LE can’t show HD textures, I’m not sure about PIM-X there. But if that’s the case you may need to create a set of 128x128px versions to add them to a lot. You can then simply load the higher res ones for use whilst playing.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,113]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

What is inside your DAT file? Step one is to check the textures exist as expected with the right IDs.

The .dat file consists of 45 .fsh files and a single .dir file, like so...

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

I will note that the Maxis LE can’t show HD textures

Yeah, I thought this might be the case and considered redoing the image as 384x384.

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

You can then simply load the higher res ones for use whilst playing.

Could you elaborate on this point? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I prepare the lot in LE / PIM-X using the low res 128x128 texture slices, so the editor can "see" them.

When the lot is ready, I replace the low res .dat plugin with the high res .dat seen above and with identical instance numbers, so the game runs HD texture versions. Right? Or not exactly...?

[rsc204 21,867]

23 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

When the lot is ready, I replace the low res .dat plugin with the high res .dat seen above and with identical instance numbers, so the game runs HD texture versions. Right? Or not exactly...?

Exactly. Provided you use the same IDs for both sets, they are effectively interchangeable. 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,113]

3 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Exactly. Provided you use the same IDs for both sets, they are effectively interchangeable.

Great! Thanks for help.

I had some problems with processing the alpha channels for the transparent parts of my new textures. Took some trial and error before I figured out how to run the batch with both images correctly paired.