Blank Icons in Menu [Solved]

[Dono 178]

Hi,

I've had a file in my menu for years that never showed up in the menu (Landmarks)....just 3 blank spots for the 3 items that should be present (The image I added was someone elses that required a different fix but looks same). If I hover over the blank spots the description text shows up and I can click on the blank items and PLOP them as normal. 

I've looked at the PLOPs .SC4lot files and they have the proper icons in them, I've tried to compare with working plop .SC4 lots but can't see what is missing for these not to show up.

Any Help would be much appreciated.

Also when I recently started using the submenu.dll mod, the lots disappeared all together and I had to re add the Lots to a submenu using the SC4cli tool, hoping they would work properly...they just come back the same....blank...lol.

Thank you.

[Propfam 2,288]

Do you install this mod?

This is pretty important since many mods that utilize the submenu DLL uses exemplar patching to put their items on the menu. If the resource hook DLL is missing, then you'll get misplaced and improper menu items. Another culprit is you mayn't have the submenus folder in your Plugins folder. Try to copy that folder from the same zip as the submenus DLL to your Plugins.

[Dono 178]

Hi Jidan.

Yeah, I have that one thanks. The icons haven't showed up since installing the Plugin about 4 years ago, I've dragged the plugin folder from install to install and always the same mod icons don't show up in the menu....well they show up, just blank.

I tried hunting down the original pack that I think Heblem modded but I can't even find it. Was a set of 3 British Petroleum Gas Stations 2x4, 4x4 and 4x6 sizes and just come in a folder "BP".

I thought there may be some missing code in his plop files or I had a bad download.

[Propfam 2,288]

2 hours ago, Dono said:

I thought there may be some missing code in his plop files

This might be probable cause. There's a tendency in a certain version of Reader, a tool used to make plugins, more specifically v1.5 and up, that basically screws up any modifications you made to the plugin. It can be from the plugin creator or maybe yourself if you tinker with that file for some reason. I personally experienced this too. I increased the capacity of Tadasu's HSR station to something more manageable, iirc. The icon got corrupted that I had to reach rsc204 to fix the issue. Fortunately, he did and he gave me the plugin with no fault. After years of modding, it turned out that the problem was indeed coming from the Reader, more specifically the DBPF algorithm. So DBPF is a file format that encapsulates every data contained in a .dat plugin. DBPF relies on indexing, encoding, and compressing to save the file. It should work just fine. But in Reader v1.5, every time you save the file, the algorithm simply can't save your changes correctly, resulting in corrupt and worse, nonfunctioning plugins.

[kergelen 727]

10 hours ago, Dono said:

Hi Jidan.

Yeah, I have that one thanks. The icons haven't showed up since installing the Plugin about 4 years ago, I've dragged the plugin folder from install to install and always the same mod icons don't show up in the menu....well they show up, just blank.

I tried hunting down the original pack that I think Heblem modded but I can't even find it. Was a set of 3 British Petroleum Gas Stations 2x4, 4x4 and 4x6 sizes and just come in a folder "BP".

I thought there may be some missing code in his plop files or I had a bad download.

Hi Dono,

I've had the same "problem" with Heblem BP stations and other Heblem big comercials stores last 10 years. To be honest i've never try to solve it, although it must be easy to incorporate an Icon, editing the files with Reader.

[philforhockey51 4,211]

What is happening is not related to submenus as the issue exists without the use of submenus dll. The lot itself is lacking a displayable icon. This sometimes happens when icons are not properly added to the lot file, sometimes info like query is in a resource file but the game might have trouble reading that. The lack of a proper icon also exists on other older custom lots.  The easiest way to tell is you get the blank spot scrolling through the menu and then once passed it the icons for other items are "shifted" and things don't seem to be lined up anymore. 

The easiest solution is to open the lot in PIM-X, lots group on left brings up all lots in your plugins, select the lot, in description/properties side of window right click on any of the properties and click open lot editor from the menu that opens. The lot editor opens in a new window, click on that window and then press Ctrl+I  (that's an i)  this creates an icon for that lot. It is a simple icon that looks like what the item looks like in the PIM-X lot edit window. It's supposed to be temporary so not the best looking but it will appear in your in game menu and if you do this for all the lots in your plugins that do not have an in game menu icon appear it will correct the in game menu so there are no gaps and the item under the cursor will match up again.  

[Dono 178]

2 hours ago, philforhockey51 said:

What is happening is not related to submenus as the issue exists without the use of submenus dll. The lot itself is lacking a displayable icon. This sometimes happens when icons are not properly added to the lot file, sometimes info like query is in a resource file but the game might have trouble reading that. The lack of a proper icon also exists on other older custom lots.  The easiest way to tell is you get the blank spot scrolling through the menu and then once passed it the icons for other items are "shifted" and things don't seem to be lined up anymore. 

The easiest solution is to open the lot in PIM-X, lots group on left brings up all lots in your plugins, select the lot, in description/properties side of window right click on any of the properties and click open lot editor from the menu that opens. The lot editor opens in a new window, click on that window and then press Ctrl+I  (that's an i)  this creates an icon for that lot. It is a simple icon that looks like what the item looks like in the PIM-X lot edit window. It's supposed to be temporary so not the best looking but it will appear in your in game menu and if you do this for all the lots in your plugins that do not have an in game menu icon appear it will correct the in game menu so there are no gaps and the item under the cursor will match up again.  

Thanks, I'll have a play after work and see if I can follow your instructions. I never thought it was related to the submenu.dll, it was more the inspiration to fix it as I've sorted 70% of my menus and the blank ones started to annoy me lol. I did have a look with reader when I started looking into fixing it but the files all had PNG files related to each plop, I might extract them and make sure they are ok and then use your method to replace them so the coding is correct.

Thanks all who have helped out, I'll be back with how I go

 

[philforhockey51 4,211]

Something people overlook sometimes is that there is a lot editor commands list with the instructions for PIM-X, those two come in handy for some questions as you try it. If you have a question or get lost along the way feel free to ask also. I wasn't successful in trying to extract the PNG from some files but I may have been doing it wrong.

Your other option if you want to add a 'finished' icon is to take a picture of it in game and then use the SC4LotIconCreator tool to get a ready to use PNG icon file. Follow the process from previous post to add a temporary icon in PIM-X to the file, then in reader open the file right click on the top bar to show the items, right click in window to select insert file, insert the icon ready png then right click on the existing png icon in the lot file and copy entry id, paste id to the newly added icon png item, right click remove the old png and then save, and it's done. You need to add the temporary icon via PIM-X to have an entry id to copy to paste on your new custom png. 

Also not too difficult but more steps and more tools

[Dono 178]

18 hours ago, philforhockey51 said:

The easiest solution is to open the lot in PIM-X, lots group on left brings up all lots in your plugins, select the lot, in description/properties side of window right click on any of the properties and click open lot editor from the menu that opens. The lot editor opens in a new window, click on that window and then press Ctrl+I  (that's an i)  this creates an icon for that lot. It is a simple icon that looks like what the item looks like in the PIM-X lot edit window. It's supposed to be temporary so not the best looking but it will appear in your in game menu and if you do this for all the lots in your plugins that do not have an in game menu icon appear it will correct the in game menu so there are no gaps and the item under the cursor will match up again.  

Well, I did my best but my best wasn't enough lol.

I followed what you said as best as I could understand but each time I got to the Ctrl+I part nothing happened. I wasn't sure if when I opened LE from right clicking on any property that I was where I meant to be as I got 2 windows, LotPreview and LE Tools. I tried the Ctrl+I in both windows but nothing happened. I even deleted Heblems original icon property entries and went through the process but still no temporary icon property was created.

[philforhockey51 4,211]

It's the lot preview window to click on, unless you also open the "building used for this lot" and edit a property so the building file is "active" you won't see the change, if the building file is active you will see the properties refresh. The icon should be attached if you pressed ctrl+i when clicked on the lot preview window, check if it appears in game

[Dono 178]

1 hour ago, philforhockey51 said:

It's the lot preview window to click on, unless you also open the "building used for this lot" and edit a property so the building file is "active" you won't see the change, if the building file is active you will see the properties refresh. The icon should be attached if you pressed ctrl+i when clicked on the lot preview window, check if it appears in game

Thanks for your valuable time, I think I'll live with the blank spots lol. Fortunately my menu order doesn't get muddled up because of them.

I'm assuming it's not necessary to have the "building used for this lot" active...only if you want to see the change as I couldn't find that setting. I tried the Ctrl+I a few times but nothing shows up in game plus when I check the lot in editor, Heblem's icon is still there and hasn't been over written.

[philforhockey51 4,211]

It should work even if the building is closed. I apologize because I'm not great at explaining things, you seem to be right there but maybe missing a step or I wasn't clear on a step. I looked through capital SimCity website for the lots but didn't find them there.

[Dono 178]

Just posting to say the problem has been found.

Some old coding took us...and when I say us I mean Philforhockey51 was taken on a ride to straighten out some obsolete coding. But when he got back to the original problem it was found that the icon itself was the fault. Even though it was visually correct, the original icon was a (indexed color PNG) It should have been a (RGB color PNG) Both exactly the same looking, same file description, just saved in a different colour Mode. Unsure if new PC specs have caused the old images to be rejected as I'd assume they once worked.

In my search for an answer I come across a number of similar posts with no fix. So if you have had a similar issue just open the icon in the free version of GIMP (Imaging software) go to Image--->Mode and you can see what it is and change it there if need be.

Thanks to those involved.