Building Viewer

[ilive 36]

Hello

I added in the download section a small program to see Simcity4 buildings and properties associated. This program is the base of a futur properties editor.

It''s the first release and some problems occur on some building. Many properties are not handled.
To use it, you must configure the program by giving the simcity4 path when asked (you can modify the path later by using the Option screen or the generated .ini file).

Available keys in the 3d display:
+/- : zoom
up/down/left/right/page up/page down : rotate

[mikeyb66 30]

Well, I was the first person to download the viewer and I think it's pretty neat. However, I noticed that when you rotate the viewer the building becomes all distorted and the backfaces are missing. Any reason for this and wil be able to see all the views properly in later versions. Apart from that neat program. I also noticed that on some of the larger buildings there are faint black lines. I thought maybe that this might be where the slices are. Keep up the good work.

[Tropod 144]

I've just downloaded and taken a look at it. Looks promising. I like how you can pivot a building upside down. Now that's what I call flexibility

[ilive 36]

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On 7/6/2003 8:22:23 AM mikeyb66 wrote:

Well, I was the first person to download the viewer and I think it's pretty neat. However, I noticed that when you rotate the viewer the building becomes all distorted and the backfaces are missing. Any reason for this and wil be able to see all the views properly in later versions. Apart from that neat program. I also noticed that on some of the larger buildings there are faint black lines. I thought maybe that this might be where the slices are. Keep up the good work.

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You can now understand why there is no smooth rotation in simcity all their buildings have only one or two faces rendered. It's like decors of a movie...

I also notice small black lines ; perhaps I have some trouble with float precision. Some buildings are also strangely rendered and you garbage instead (this is the case for a chinese tower , the pyramids...)

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Wonderful Job ilive..... I was worried that you got tired of programming for SC4 (I am wrong, I am glad)...

 

Ralphael

[Leichhardt 3]

I can't seem to get the viewer to work.

I have configured the path...

C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4

however, it keeps trying to add two \\ in front of simcity_1.dat and so on... so it gives an error unable to open.

Not only that.. you indicated it was in the Downloads section.. when it was in the Mods section.

I'd really like to use this tool... perhaps you could profer some advice?

Thanks...

[ilive 36]

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On 7/6/2003 11:33:45 AM Leichhardt wrote:

I can't seem to get the viewer to work.

I have configured the path...

C

rogram FilesMaxisSimCity 4

however, it keeps trying to add two \ in front of simcity_1.dat and so on... so it gives an error unable to open.

Not only that.. you indicated it was in the Downloads section.. when it was in the Mods section.

I'd really like to use this tool... perhaps you could profer some advice?

Thanks...

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hm... strange. You can try to edit the reader.ini located in the program folder. Under the Editor section, you have the field sc4. Put a \ at the end of the path and could you tell me if it resolves your problem ?

[ilive 36]

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On 7/6/2003 10:14:27 AM RalphaelNinja wrote:

Wonderful Job ilive..... I was worried that you got tired of programming for

SC4

(I am wrong, I am glad)...

 

Ralphael

----------------

bah...no, I'm not fed up with sc4 programming... but I spend also time on my favorite game (Civilization 3)

[ilive 36]

I have uploaded a new version which handle most of properties (I hope even all).
some building may differ from the Lot Editor (due to family properties)

[mikeyb66 30]

Well it appears I'm also the first person to download the second edition and I can;t really tell what you have done except add the last line of the parent cohort to each file. Keep up the good work tho.

[Tropod 144]

say is this thread dead already? ....................

 

ilive,

'if' you're still bothering with the (building) viewer, I have a question/request for you........I was wondering whether it'd be possible to have the network related items (if that's what they are) displayed in the viewer (somehow). Items like the different road/street/rail pieces etc (not every single one of them though of course). A many number of road/street/rail exemplars have a number of "'LotConfigProperty*****"' property in them. It is all those Exemplars with a Group ID (Mem) 0x89AC5643, and an Exemplar Type 0x00000021. So I am just wondering is there anything that would currently prevent this from being possible, and if not could we please please please have them included in the building viewer (somehow-if it is indeed feasible/possible), as it "may" help with the process deciphering the networks.......if it's not possible, that's understandable, no big deal, but it'd certainly be nice to be able to see them with the viewer I'm sure.

[ilive 36]

I tried to show them ... but I didn't see a lot of things. Most of them are only lights.

I will upload a version , you will find them in the Other section.

 

 

[Tropod 144]

I'm not sure or not if it's because of the new Exemplar types that have been added, but the Building viewer crashes now.......

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know if this is of any help or not, but.......

 

The Networks-SC4NetworkAssociater Type (0xC9A5A1BE) property contains those same values as a number of FSH files Instance IDs. These FSH files are a number of network pieces, like roads/rail/streets etc (just the base/ground texture). And I (for one) believe that the "'LotConfigProperty*****"' properties (in Exemplar Types 0x00000021), is what is shown on these network pieces (in conjunction) with the above property (0xC9A5A1BE). This property though (0xC9A5A1BE) does seem multifunctional (it seems to link RUL files somewhere along the lines), but just to view these Exemplar Type 0x00000021 (with these network pieces), maybe this info will help?

[Tropod 144]

um.......scratch that about crashing and the new Exemplar Types being the cause/fault.......

 

I realised the crash occurs when you enter the SimCity Directory for the first time (when it pops up), and the Viewer tries to update/process it, but it won't/can't so it crashes, but open it again and it works just fine..............I'd still like that above property (0xC9A5A1BE) added though please, if that's possible at all?

[ilive 36]

sorry for the crash...

 

about the 0xC9A5A1BE, I don't see how I can use it at the moment. In a normal way, the LotConfigProperty goes to 3DM files (sometimes not directly , you have to go through other exemplars). In the 3dm file, there is one or more textures associated with the 3d structure. So I don't know how to map a FSH file (that we have through the 0xC9A5A1B property) on this 3dm strucutre (as this fsh is not a part of the 3dm ,there are not even coordinates).

 

If you just want to see all road/railway... texture, I began to create a texture viewer (not available yet). And thanks for this property (I thought that I had to take all texture instances from ini files, but with this property, I just have to parse the exemplars)

[Tropod 144]

sorry ilive.......I should have, I meant to mention (if you hadn't already realized)........ that property (0xC9A5A1BE), the values associated with, (besides its multifunction) it is the starting Instance ID for a group/set of 5 FSH files (all of which are the same item). The (Instance) value is actually the smaller of the 5 FSH files, so you would have to add 0x00000001 for each FSH file that is next in the set of 5 to get the bigger FSH/piece for these network pieces. Hope this makes sense? Not sure if it's of any help or not for your texture viewer (which btw sounds like something interesting).

[ilive 36]

yes, I understood this point. The problem is the viewer only displays 3dm files & fsh files found inside this 3dm, not external fsh.

[dzi 0]

I know this thread is kinda old but I've just tried the viewer for the first time and want to say something

1. It's a great idea and there are many possible uses of this tool, even for fun.

2. I'm not sure if you have memory leaks or you just render everything into memory and don't release it later (it seems so because when you choose a building for a second time it apears faster) but do you know that each click on a building takes like 40MBs of memory? I had 1.2GB ( [:0] ) usage after checking all R$ buildings. And generally the tool is rather unstable, crashes on some buildings and so on.

[Andreas Roth 607]

Well, this tool is very outdated and has certain bugs. If you want to see all (growable) buildings with their key properties, such as building set, stage, pollution values etc., I'd suggest to take a look at my SimCity Building Database .

[dzi 0]

Thank you very much, it's a great work there!