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I was asked about slope mods by Dreadnought today. Halfway through replying to a PM, I realised this would be better posted here for all to see. If anyone can think of something I've missed, I'd be happy to consider it's inclusion at some point. For now though, this will just cover some of the basics. What is a Slope Mod? A slope mod just adjusts the allowable slopes, at an individual network level. What does that mean?... Without any additional mods, if you have a big hill and draw a network, the game has a default setting for the maximum slope of each network. Maxis deliberately made this pretty unrestrictive, for ease of play. If you want to create more realistic looking cities, especially with hilly terrain, you will probably want to install a mod that adjusts the default slopes, making them more restrictive. This will help to avoid the bumpy uneven roads, that are very common when playing without such a mod. Each network in the game has it's own settings, that dictate how steep the slopes can be when dragging that network. These networks are: Street Road OWR (One Way Road) Avenue Maxis Highway Rail Elevated Rail Monorail Dirt Road (RealHighway [RHW]). It should be noted that override networks do not have separate settings. So for example, if you are using the Network Widening Mod (NWM) or Street Addon Mod (SAM), which are overrides of the Road and Street networks respectively, they will use the same settings as the base network. Dirt Road is so called, because it was an additional unused network left in the game's code. Whilst it has been repurposed by the NAM team to be used for the RHW mod, technically it's the Dirt Road network. From here on in, I will refer to dirt road as RHW, for the sake of clarity. A Slope Mod sounds just up my street... Hopefully if you've made it here, you'll be thinking right now about installing a slope mod. As always with mods for SC4, there are far too many options out there to go into every one in excruciating detail. They all do pretty much the same thing, but there are two important factors you should consider when selecting one. What networks does the mod support/change. How restrictive is the slope. For example, you may decide you only want to have restricted slopes for some of the supported networks. So if a mod bundles everything together in one DAT, unless you know how to remove those you do not want, (really not very hard, even though it does require the Reader), you should be mindful of this. A very restrictive slope mod will totally transform how you build and terraform in game. Whereas a very unrestrictive mod, could end up looking like the vanilla experience. If you are new to slope mods, then it's probably best to try a few out and get a feel for how they affect things. Especially before you start using one in a cherished region. For example, a really restrictive slope can mean a 15m height difference, would take something in the region of a whole large tile for the slope. Obviously that's an extreme example, most of them are much more balanced for general play. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm going to show the three mods I'm using: BRF's Tunnel and Slope Mod RHW Slope Mod BTM Slope Mod And here is a comparison shot, to give you an example of how these changes affect your slopes. Each of the networks in this picture are transitioning from a 15m high hill. Even with the slope mod by BRF, the street network takes only three tiles or 48m to descend by 15m. For math aficionados, that's a slope of around 1:3. This is pretty steep, but probably not completely unrealistic in some places. The road takes 4 tiles or 60m by comparison, which is 1:4. As you can see, I've cunningly laid these out from bottom to top, in the order of the slopes gradients. From steepest, to the shallowest slope. If you are still wondering why you need a slope mod, this picture should hopefully show you how much nicer your slopes can be. Note: I've used Rail stubs to indicate the first three tiles that are at ground level for each network. I've also used PedMalls to help see the slopes better. As you can see, rail has the most restrictive slope of all, so much so, even with my fairly reasonable grades, it doesn't fit in the screenshot. Using your slope mods more flexibly Whilst you could have multiple slope mods for a number of different situations, that's quite a complex setup and requires you to close SC4 and move files about. Let's say I want a road to have a slope similar to that of the El-Rail network shown above. Rather than switch to a slope mod permanently with those settings, there is an easier way. Just use the El-Rail tool to draw the slope first, delete it and drag the road down your nice new slope. Using the above picture as reference, you can do this for any network which appears lower down the screenshot, than the slope you require. To put that another way, if you made a slope using the Avenue tool, but then wanted to use it for the Rail network, this would not work. Since the rail network is more restrictive. Using this setup though, you can have quite a bit of flexibility for a number of networks. Note how the Rail networks, including Monorail and Elevated Rail, have the most restrictive slopes of all. That makes a lot of sense when you think about it, since in real life, the gradients they are able to support are much less than cars and other traffic are able to deal with. Some final hints and tips SimCity 4 can be unforgiving at times, it's all too easy when making other changes, for your hard work creating slopes to become unravelled. Just as I have shown above, using PedMalls next to the slope, will lock-in the slope, making it impossible for development and other networks to alter them further. Of course, if you wanted a junction halfway down the slope, that now be impossible too. Here's where some planning really comes in handy. Using the four steps shown on the right, you can easily form intersections as part of your slopes. Drag the initial slope, here I am using the El-Rail tool for the slope. I have placed pedmalls and used a rail stub to completely flatten the tile where the junction will be. Now you can continue to drag your slope, in this case in two directions, from the stub. I've placed the pedmalls here before I built the road. As you can see, the slopes are working very well. Lastly, I've dragged the street tool, anything with a less restrictive slope would do, parallel to the new road. This makes the surrounding tiles match the slope used for the road. This is useful if you want to zone next to the road, or sometimes for blending into the terrain better. Note: I have not dragged next to the road junction, a gap of one tile must be left here. Because I've used pedmall to lock-in the slope, there would be no danger of messing up our hard work. But if the pedmalls were not present, dragging either of the parallel streets closer to each other, might mean you'd have to start over. Another useful thing to know, when zoning next to slopes, the game can actually alter the slope of the transit network. Either when zoning or when buildings develop. Often this is quite undesirable, but there is a way to avoid it. By holding the CTRL key when zoning, the game knows not to change the slopes in either scenario. It does require some thinking about how you zone each area, but is a very handy way to stop the game messing up all our hard work, to keep slopes looking good. If you make a partial slope, you can then level off areas using "stubs" as required. Stubs are made by clicking only once with the network tools, such as the Street, Road or Rail, in each tile. As opposed to connecting or drawing them in a line. I prefer to use rail stubs myself, because they do not feature auto-connect. This can catch you out on occasion, causing problems, especially when using the RHW or Streets tool. Leave these stubs in place whilst you are building your slopes, to incorporate many different things, that might otherwise look undesirable on uneven terrain. This can be especially useful for incorporating WRC's, TE connections and many other possibilities into your slopes.

Introduction Notice: The original site hosting all the separate parts of the Japanese NAM Facelift Mod is no longer online. Currently you can download the entire 11 files in a single 7zip archive here: Therefore, please note that the following instructions differ slightly, but where it says in the tutorial to download a specific part of the mod, just use the containing folder from the download. What is the Japanese NAM Facelift Mod, and why do I want it? Well at it's core, this mod is smartly designed to add your sidewalk onto many of the NAM puzzle pieces that without it would remain bare, or show the default Maxis White sidewalks. Support includes many features of the NAM, such as PedMalls, FLUPs, WRCs, Overpasses and much more besides. Additionally, it features many custom options that transform the general appearance of NAM features. Many of the components of the mod have different options for you to set things up just how you want them. Although recent developments have helped to avoid baked-in sidewalk textures in the NAM, this mod is still phenomenally useful for covering the legacy pieces many of us still use. As such, it's still relevant, plus in my opinion, one of the must have mods for everyone. PART I - Installing the Basic Mod In this first part I'm going to explain how to install the base of the Japanese NAM Facelift Mod. In subsequent parts, I will expand this to cover every option that is available. If you don't want or need a specific Add-On, then just skip that part of the tutorial. But keep what you do install in the same order listed here, to ensure you don't run into problems. So first off you will need to download the file "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod.zip" from here. Please rename this file "01_NAMFaceLiftBaseMod.zip" either before downloading or after you have done so. This is very important since many of the different Add-Ons for this pack have the same filename, so do this now and you'll avoid any problems later. This part of the Japanese Facelift serves as the base part of the mod, and will add your sidewalk texture onto the Wide Radius Curves (WRC) and Fractionally Angled Road (FAR) puzzle pieces (all found in the Roads Menu). Although technically it seems you can get away without using this part of the NAM FaceLift Mod, I would recommend everyone using the mod starts here, especially considering how much nicer WRC and FAR looks compared to the original bare curves. Before we install this mod, it is very important that we are able to test it in a simple environment, so that any problems can be tracked down easily. In short, the best practice would be to remove all the files/folders in your Plugins, with the exception of the "Network Addon Mod", "z___Nam", and your chosen sidewalk mod's folders. Move them somewhere safe where you can find them later, you now have a test setup, it should look like this: Temporarily moved items are shown on the left, the current Plugins folder is shown on the right. Note: When running SC4 with a test setup it is recommended to play in a new, blank region. Now open the .zip file from earlier (double click the .zip file), where you will find a folder called "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod", you need to copy this folder into your "My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins" directory. Rename this folder "z____NAMFacelift" it is very important to use at least 4 underscores " _ " to ensure this mod loads after the NAM. Otherwise some of the pieces will not work as expected. Note: Previous versions of the NAM worked differently, using a lot of zzzs or a z# numbering system will NO LONGER WORK. Open your newly renamed folder and you should find 4 folders, "Props", "Readme", "Textures" and "WideRadiusCurves". Open the readme (inside its folder), and find the section "Usage". From here you need to choose which of the Wide Curve styles you would like this mod to use. Open the Props folder: You can remove "Side walk style Add on.dat" and "Side walk style.dat" ONLY if you are going to use the Overall Pavement Style option, Otherwise keep all the files inside. At this point I can also recommend installing this patch Overall Pavement Style Fix.zip. It fixes a display issue in Z3 which causes parts of the sidewalk to look brighter than they should. Just place this file in the Props folder, and it will work correctly. In the "WideRadiusCurves" folder keep the folder "Common". Then remove the three Wide Curve folders, that are named after the sidewalk styles you are NOT intending to use. Note: If your sims drive on the Right in-game, you MUST remove two files both named "zFractional Angle Road-Straight over rail LH.dat". One is located in the "Common" / "Road" folder, the other is found in whichever WideRadius folder you kept installed. My advice for removing such additional files during this mods installation, is to delete the files you do not need. You will have the originals in the .zip file you downloaded, should you ever want to change options. Therefore it is easier to test various options in-game (move the folders you are not using temporarily), and decide on what to use before continuing. Remember to test in a new city/region and with the "test setup" explained earlier. At this point, if everything is working then the WRCs & FAR pieces should all have sidewalks that match your sidewalk mod like so: Note: You may need to zone next to such pieces before the sidewalks appear. For some reason it seems that one piece, the Diagonal to FAR Avenue, seems not to be supported by this mod. Support for them is provided by my soon to be released SWN (Sidewalk NAM) mod. PART II - Overpasses The link for the three mods discussed in this part can be found on this page. There are many different options to make this set compatible with a number of other (mainly Japanese Mods). To start, I'll quickly go through them: z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod.zip (02_NAMFaceliftOverpasses.zip) This is the base set that adds the new style overpasses, it will also change the white bases to match your sidewalk mod. Other_Mod.zip (03_NAMFaceliftOverpassOptions.zip) This file contains options for users of certain mods, see section 2 for more details. Neko_Overpass_AddOn_Lot.zip (04_NAMFaceliftOverpassNekoParking.zip) This file contains four new ramps, and some pieces with under bridge car parks for the 7.5m Overpasses. Note: For the files you download, you should rename them to match the filename in brackets above, otherwise you won't understand which I'm referring too later. 1 - Main Overpass Mod Open the file we renamed to "02_NAMFaceLiftOverpass", then open the "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod" folder. You should also have a second window with the folder we created in the last lesson "z____NAMFacelift" in your Plugins folder. Move the 4 folders from the zip into your z____NAMFacelift folder. If this is done correctly, you will see a message pop up asking you if you want to merge/overwrite files or folders. This is perfectly safe to do, as the mod was designed to work in this way. Each separate package that contains the same textures/props has them included, so if we overwrite files here, we will only be left with one of each. So tell Windows it is OK to do this for every occurrence of the message. To save time you could tick "Do this for all current items" in Windows 7/newer. When finished, both readmes will be in one convenient location, all you need to do is select a few options. Open the "Overpass" / "T21" folder where there are four further folders: Select_GuardRail - Remove the file "zGuardRailProps.dat" if you do NOT want white gaurdrails on the road edge of Overpasses. Select Pavement - There are three options: "noBlankLotPavement.dat" - Tiles under overpasses always remain transparent. "noTransoirtLotPavement.dat" - Show Sidewalks under overpasses, except for where transit networks cross. "zOverallPavement.dat" - Show sidewalks under overpasses and where transit networks cross. Keep ONLY ONE of these files. Select SecurityFence - Remove the file "zSecurityFence_Props.dat", if you do NOT want security fences on the bottom edge of Overpasses. Select Streetlight - Pick the streetlight colour for your overpasses, by removing all the ones you do not want to use. 2 - Overpass Option Due to the complexity of some of the mods here, I will only briefly explain what each one is and how to install them. Open the file we renamed to "03_NAMFaceliftOverpassOption.zip", then open the "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod" folder. You should also have a second window with the folder we created in the first lesson, "z____NAMFacelift" in your Plugins folder. Note: Re-start at this point after installing each mod, if installing more than one. Japanese Signal Mod If you have this mod installed, which makes the stoplights appear on the left at junctions, this Add-On will add those same stoplights to the intersection pieces of your overpasses. To install open "Overpass" / "T21" / "Full" in both the extracted files window and also the Plugins windows. Copy the folder "zz_JapaneseSignal" into your plugins. Japanese Sidewalk Mod2 For users of this mod, this will change the Overpasses to blend in better. To install open "Overpass" / "T21" / "Full" in both the extracted files window and also the Plugins windows. Copy the folder "zzzJpn_SideWalk_Mod2" into your plugins. The following three mods by Moonlight should only be installed, if you have the respective NAM features also (see image below): ML Shinkansen Mod (NAM Feature) If you installed the Bullet Train Mod (1) then you should install this Add-On. ML El Rail Mod 2013 (NAM Feature) If you are using ML's Alternate El Rail (3) then you should install this Add-On. ML Jap Canal (second download button on page). If you have installed Moonlights Canal Set, this will update the CAN-AM mod, so that the canal overpasses are replaced with models matching the ML Canals. Note: You need to also have the CAN-AM (2) installed for this to work. To install these mods by Moonlight, open the "OverPass" folder in both windows, then copy the folder "z_zMLModFile" into your plugins. Open the newly copied folder and remove any of the three options that you do NOT want installed. Note: All of the above add-ons only make sense if you have installed the respective mod. If you have not, these features may not work, or worse, cause problems with your game. 3 - Neko 7.5m Ramps and Parking Add-On Open the file we renamed to "04_NAMFaceliftOverpassNekoParking" and simply copy the folder "Neko_Overpass_Addon_Lot" into the "z____NAMFacelift" folder in your plugins. Note: This download requires the following additional dependency, Jim CarProp Pack 1.2 These items will appear in your Misc. Transit menu in-game, here is a brief guide on how to use them: Road 7.5m Parking Draw the network using the NAM 7.5m Road Overpasses FIRST. The 3 parking lots can be simply placed on existing sections of the overpass. You must then draw a line through the parking lots with the Road Tool. Road 7.5m Ramps To connect the ramps, the higher part should overlap an existing section of 7.5m overpass, push the piece as far as it will go into the overpass and click to place. Draw road into the ramp as far as you can. Avenue 7.5m Parking The Carpark lots are the same as the road lots, just use the Avenue tool to drag through them instead. For 2-tile parking just click once, no dragging needed. Avenue 7.5m Ramps To connect the Ramps is tricky, build the avenues so that you've got the overpasses on one side and an avenue on the other, with a big enough gap for the ramp you wish to use. If you can't plop it, keep removing one avenue tile at a time and try again. Once it's in place, connect up with One Way Road, NOT the Avenue tool, on both sides of the road. Note: These OWR's must be in the correct direction of traffic. You can not plop the parking lots next to each other or a ramp, there must always be at least one tile of space separating them, or traffic will be prevented from using the overpass. You can open the pictures in the installed folder, these can help you understand these instructions with visual clues. PART III - FLUPs and Pedmalls In this part we will cover three more mods that will add your sidewalks to the FLUPs and PEDMALL pieces from the NAM. The three mods listed in the tutorial can be found on this page: z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod.zip (05_NAMFaceliftFLUPs.zip) This Add-On will update your FLUPs to match your sidewalk. z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod.zip (06_NAMFaceliftPedmall.zip) This mod adds a variety of different pedmall styles. z_zNAM_PedBridge_Chg_JPN_Mod.zip (07_NAMFaceliftPedbridge.zip) This mod contains replacement pedmall bridges. Note: For the files you download, you should rename them to match the filename in brackets above. Otherwise you won't understand which I'm referring too later. 1 - FLUPS Open the file we renamed to "05_NAMFaceliftFLUPs.zip", then open the "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod" folder. You should also have a second window with the folder we created in Part I, "z____NAMFacelift", in your Plugins folder. Move the 4 folders from the zip into your z____NAMFacelift folder. If this is done correctly, you will see a message pop up asking you if you want to merge/overwrite files or folders. As before, you should overwrite any files it says are duplicates and merge the folders. When finished the new readme will be in the same convenient location as the other mods. All you need to do is select the correct road textures. Open the "FLUPs" / "Road" folder. If you use US Road Textures, remove the file "zRoadTexturesEuro.dat" from here. That's it, you are done, so open SC4 and test your results. Remember to also check the Tram FLUPs, which are in the Misc. Transport Menu. As usual, you may need to zone before sidewalks appear. 2- PedMalls In your Road Menu, there is an item named "Pedestrian Mall Tiles". Here are a number of single-tile pieces, that can be placed together to form a pedestrian-enabled walkway. Further information on the usage and limitations of which, are provided in the NAM documentation. This mod will make the first two of these Pedmalls match your Sidewalk. It will additionally replace the light pole pedmall, with a more flexible piece. Every time you plop one, one of over 20 possibilities is chosen at random. If you move away from the tile after placing such a pedmall, then return to the same spot and click once more, you can cycle through the options. Open the file we renamed to "06_NAMFaceliftPedmall.zip", then open the "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod" folder. You should also have a second window with the folder we created in Part I, "z____NAMFacelift", in your Plugins folder. Move the 4 folders from the zip into your z____NAMFacelift folder. As in previous parts, overwrite any files it says are duplicates and merge the folders. When finished the new readme will be in the same convenient location as the other mods and you are ready to go and test the results. Note: Due to the way Pedmalls are designed, if the wealth of surrounding buildings change, then any adjacent pedmalls will change design. If you want to try a different set of Pedmalls, check out Paeng's alternate version (Add On). 3 - PedBridges As part of the NAM pedmalls, there are some bridges included. This mod will replace those with more attractive bridges for Roads, Streets, OWR, Rail and Avenue. In case you were wondering, after selecting the Pedestrian Mall Tiles, just keep pressing the TAB key and these bridges will eventually appear. Open the file we renamed to "07_NAMFaceliftPedbride.zip", then open the "z_NAM_FaceLift_Mod" folder. You should also have a second window with the folder we created in Part I, "z____NAMFacelift", in your Plugins folder. Move the 2 folders and the 5 dat files from the zip, into your z____NAMFacelift folder. As in previous parts, overwrite any files it says are duplicates and merge the folders. When finished, the new readme will be in the same convenient location as the other mods and you are ready to go and test the results. Note: The included props for this set, are essential to it's correct operation. Just as with the PedMalls set, you can re-click to get different bridge designs. Once more though, they change if the wealth of surrounding buildings do. There is an additional Mod by Magneto, here (find the attached file "z_ped_overpasses_signs_cancel.zip"), to remove the road signs if you dislike them. PART IV - SAM and Rail Optional Mods Two optional mods for SAM streets and your Railway network will be covered in this part, you can download these mods here. Note: The first two mods for GLR listed on this page, will be covered in the next part of this tutorial. z_SAM_NoGrass_Mod.zip (08_NAMFaceliftSAMNoGrass.zip) This Add-On will change the grass textures of 4 of the SAM sets to Sidewalks. z_Alternate_Railway_Mod_Add_On.zip (09_NAMFaceliftAltRail.zip) This Add-On is for users of the PEG Railway Mod, and adds a similar texture to WRC and FAR pieces. Note: For the files you download, you should rename them to match the filename in brackets above otherwise you won't understand which I'm referring too later. 1 - SAM No Grass Mod Open the file we renamed to "08_NAMFaceliftSAMNoGrass.zip", you should also have a second window open with the folder we created in Part I, "z____NAMFacelift", in your Plugins folder. Move the folder "z_SAM_NoGrass_Mod" from the zip, into your z____NAMFacelift folder. Note: This mod does not function like previous mods and needs to be given it's own folder. You should not see any messages relating to duplicate folders, if you have done it correctly. Inside the folder you just moved, will be 5 further folders: Readme SAM2 SAM7 SAM8 SAM9 This mod will make every tile of SAM2, 7, 8 and 9 show full sidewalks without any grass. Remove the folders for those SAM types you do NOT want to be changed. You can of course keep all 4 if you wish. You can now test your results, as that's everything we need to do here. Note: If you use the US road textures, you will need to enter each SAM folder and delete the file "zSAM*_NoGrass_Euro_Textures.dat". Where * is the SAM network type. 2 - Alternate Railway Mod This mod will add textures in the style of PEG's Alternate Railway Mod, for STR, FAR and WRC rail curves. PEG_Dirt-Rail-Set_205_SU.zip Open the file we renamed to "09_NAMFaceliftAltRail.zip", you should also have a second window open with the folder we created in Part I, "z____NAMFacelift", in your Plugins folder. Move the folder "z_Alternate_Railway_Mod_Add_On" from the zip, into your z____NAMFacelift folder. Note: Once again this mod needs it's own subfolder, so don't overwrite anything. Folders "STR" and "WideRadiusCurves" contain the STR and WRC/FAR textures respectively. Remove either if you don't need them. The folder "FLUPs" contains transparent FLUPs for PEG's Rail Mod. However, the NAM FLUP models do not support transparency, causing the water bug to be triggered. If you wish to use this feature, just install the following patch NAM Transparent Rail FLUPs Patch.zip in the same folder. Otherwise simply delete the "FLUPs" folder. Simple as that, you should now have nice textures on your rail curves and FAR sections. Note: An additional MOD created by Ebina, will also add matching rail textures where rail goes under Overpasses. You can download this from here (AlternateRail_EPOverpasses_v201a.zip), it says outdated, but it works just fine. PART V - GLR/GLR Options This mod changes all your GLR, including Tram in Avenue, Tram in Road and Tram in Street to have SMP Sandstone Sidewalks. Users of other sidewalk mods may also find that a warmer sandstone for their GLR network, is preferable to the original Maxis white. You can download these GLR mods here. Note: The third and forth links on this page were covered in part IV above. z_GLR_SandStone_Textures_Mod.zip (10_NAMFaceliftGLR.zip) This Add-On will add Sandstone sidewalks to the GLR Networks. Opstion.zip (11_NAMFaceliftGLROption.zip) Contains two alternate options for the above GLR Mod. Note: For the files you download, you should rename them to match the filename in brackets above, otherwise you won't understand which I'm referring too later. 1 - GLR Open the file we renamed to "10_NAMFaceliftGLR.zip", you should also have a second window open with the folder we created in Part I "z____NAMFacelift" in your Plugins folder. Move the folder "z_GLR_SandStone_Textures_Mod" from the zip into your z____NAMFacelift folder. Note: This mod does not function like previous mods, and needs to be given it's own folder, you should not see any messages relating to duplicate folders if you have done it correctly. Inside the folder you just moved will be 4 further folders. Corefile Readme zEuroTextures zzLeft_Hand_Version Users of the Euro Textures where sims drive on the left do not need to do anything further. Note: If you use the US road textures and sims drive on the right, you will need to delete two folders, "zEuroTextures" and "zzLeft_Hand_Version". Users of Euro Textures where sims drive on the right should remove just the "zzLeft_Hand_Version". Finally users of US textures, but where sims drive on the left, need to remove the folder "zEuroTextures". Then enter the "zzLeft_Hand_Version" folder and remove an additional folder named "zEuroTextures". You can now test your results as that's everything we need to do here. Note: This mod will not replace many of the diagonal Tram in Avenue pieces, you may also find there are a couple of other (mainly tram in road) pieces, that will remain white too. 2 - GLR Options There are two options for the GLR Mod, one which changes the street intersections of the Dragable tram to SAM 8 textures. The other adds a complete sidewalk to the tram loops, rather than the original rails with transparent bases. Open the file we renamed to " 11_NAMFaceliftGLROption.zip", you should also have a second window open with the folder we created in Part I, "z____NAMFacelift", in your Plugins folder. Move the folder "z_GLR_SandStone_Textures_Mod" from the zip, into your z____NAMFacelift folder. Note: This mod is part of the above GLR mod, and the folder you copy should be merged with it's original. Open the folder we just moved there are two files inside, you can remove either if you only want to use one of these mods. And that's pretty much all there is to it *phew*. Bear in mind this is a modified copy of the tutorial I originally posted on SimPeg. Since that was lost with it's demise, I wanted to finally bring it over to ST, so that new users would be able to get this essential mod working. I try to keep my tutorials up-to date, so if you notice missing images or broken links, please send me a PM and I'll fix them where possible. MGB

Have you ever wanted to use one of the in-game automata as a prop in lotting? Well it's actually really simple, all you need to do is create a prop exemplar that links to the installed automata model. You can even duplicate the model and make rotated versions. Unlike normal SC4Models, automata are special because fully 3D models are used in game. However to aid you in making automata as props, I've included here a template for the Bus Automata. I will use this as an example, and walk through the modifications required to make whatever bus automata you are using. But the principles explained here can be adapted to props for any S3D 3D model that you want as a prop. Note all models are S3D, but not all S3D models are the 3D ones. In the example above you can see the Basic Prop Exemplar for the default Bus Automata. The IID* of this model is 0x10620000. This is the same ID used in the Resource Key Type 0 field of the prop exemplar. *IID = Instance ID, as in Type, Group and Instance. For all 3D models the same Type and Group ID is normally used, hence we only need to worry about the Instance ID when dealing with these models. Any models which over-ride the Maxis defaults, must have the same ID as the originals. Therefore it's usually easy to know which IDs we are looking for. Vester has compiled a handy list of most Maxis Automata here. The example shown above references the default Bus Model. Without further modification, you can now use this prop to place your Bus Automata on lots. But in the included template DAT, there are a further 3 Prop Exemplars, linked to 3 S3D model files. These S3D files need to be replaced by duplicates of the actual Bus Automata you want to make into props. Since those included are merely templates. Copying your custom Bus Automata. These additional prop exemplars need to link to rotated models. At FAR-L, FAR-R and Diagonal positions. If you want to use these, you need to find the DAT containing your Bus Automata. Open that file, whilst keeping the included file opened as well. Copy the S3D of the Bus Model. Be careful to get the whole bus, not the model with the lights. Paste this below an existing S3D model in my file. Right click the template S3D model and select "Copy Entry ID". Right click the replacement S3D model and select "Paste Entry ID". Right click the template S3D model, select "Remove File". We don't need this anymore. So that's one S3D model replaced with your custom one. If you do it this way, all the prop exemplars and textures from the existing model are now automatically linked together, saving a lot of work. Repeat the process for the remaining two S3D templates. Save your modified file. You can optionally rename the Prop Exemplars to better suit your model. Rotating unique model instances with SC4 Model Tweaker by @cogeo Now we need to rotate the models, because right now our copies are still straight. For this, you need Coego's Excellent Model Tweaker. Open the modified DAT file using Model Tweaker. Highlight the following S3D models in turn and use the Rotate Models option with the following settings for each: S3D IID 0x20620000 FAR-L - Counter-Clockwise / Free = 18.5 S3D IID 0x30620000 FAR-R - Clockwise / Free = 18.5 S3D IID 0x40620000 Diag - Clockwise / Free = 45 Now save the file. Your props will now appear in the Lot Editor for use. Bear in mind that such props may not show correctly in the Lot Editor. But they will appear in game, all four props link back to the original model's textures. So to use them, you must keep the file with the automata installed. BusAutomata_as_Props.zip

Links to other parts of this tutorial: part1, part 2, part 3 Getting It In Game Exporting, the PM, and the LE Well, now, we've got a model all ready to go, but now what? This next part is by far the simplest thing you're going to do in the BAT. If you haven't already, save the file. On the Utilities Tab, pick the BAT button, and on the Export rollout hit the Export button. The default for export is "High", but if you're simply doing a test export to see what it'll look like, you can pick from Medium, Low, and Draft. If you pick anything other than "High", gmax will ask if you're sure. The next step is to sit back and wait. Or, if you have an extremely large or complex model, you'll wait, and wait, and wait, and wait..... While rendering, the computer can run other processes, but I'd recommend shutting down anything else running. The BAT's renderer can be so picky about things, so I prefer not to take chances. On my computer, this export took about 17 and a half minutes. Yours may take longer, or may take less time, depending on your particular system. Excellent! Now that you're through with gmax, go ahead and close that program. It may prompt you to save (it always does for me), it's completely up to you whether or not you do that. I have heard that if you save after an export, and then try to change the model later, you'll run into MAJOR problems. I would recommend clicking "no", unless you forgot to save before the export (better to have a few issues than lose all changes, right). Now, open up the SC4 Plugin Manager. You'll be presented with a window that looks something like the one above. It's actually a relatively simple interface: 1. The Navigation "Tree" - This is where you'll drag and drop your model. Every single possible type of building is listed here. Wherever you "drop" your model is how it will be defined for SC4 and the LE. If you drop it into "Fire Station", for example, the building will be recognized by SC4 as a fire house and react to it accordingly. 2. The Navigation "Window" - At first, this is where all of your models are listed. This is based on what's in your My Documents >Sim City 4>Plugins folder. 3. The Toolbars (not numbered) - Not actually a whole heck of a lot you can do here. You can change how the information shows in the navigation window, "refresh" the screen (if you added something into the Plugins folder after the PM was opened), and view the PM's settings. You can not actually change the settings (and for good reason - you wouldn't want it to stop working, would you). Since BAT Tutorial, Inc is going to be an office, but surely isn't fancy enough for §§§, then we'll need to make it a CO§§. Scroll down the navigation tree until you see "R-C-I >Commercial Office >(CO$)Medium Wealth". Now, find your building (I named mine "tutorial") and drag it into the medium wealth commercial office spot. The PM will pop up with the next screen. The Properties Editor allows you to make changes to this building's attributes. Take note that this is the CO window. R, C, I, Landmark, Parks, etc will have different values here depending on what they do. I simply don't have the space to explain them all to you, but if you have a question don't be afraid to ask me. This is a breakdown of what you can do here: Building Value - How much this building is worth in Simoleons. Bulldoze Cost - How much it will cost the city to tear it down. Capacity Satisfied - Actually, pretty complex. This is a pair of values: the first is a hexidecimal code that points to a certain demand or capacity (in this case, CO), the second is how much of that capacity this building satisfies. In the case of this building, the second number is how many people will be employed (this can change depending upon which capacity or demand the hex number points to - check out the Mods section for the hex codes). You can check the box next to "Hex" to display in the hexadecimal format (hex is shown like 0x00000000). Construction Time - How long it will take for the construction crew to finish. Exemplar Name - How you will find your building in the LE - also, the name that will show when you query the building. Flammability - How likely the building is to catch fire (the higher the number, the more likely). MaxFireStage - How long it will take the building, once on fire, to burn completely down (not sure as to how it converts to real-life terms). Pollution at center - How much pollution this building produces broken down by air, water, garbage and radiation, in that order - don't get carried away here! Pollution Radii - The radius of pollution - ie the size of the circle this building will pollute, expressed in "cells". Water/Power Consumed - How much water and power this building uses, I assume it corresponds to the same units the in-game buildings produce, but haven't tested enough to be sure. Do not get too carried away! Worth - If this building is levelled by the robot (or any other disaster) how much it will report to the disaster tally - ie, if you have 1000 here, if you lose the building to a volcano, §1,000 will be added to the disaster total. The little window at the bottom just above the OK button gives you a short description of what the boxes do when you highlight them. Remember that some boxes let you type directly in them, some are drop-down menus, and the rest are lists (you have to hit the "ellipses" button - it looks like it's got 3 dots on it - to change the values). For now, we're just going to change the Exemplar Name to "BAT Tutorial, Inc" (without the quotes) and leave everything else alone. Take note that the PM will assign default values it feels are appropriate for the building based on its volume. The Common Tab lets you assign the building to a Building or Prop Family (it's a lot to explain if you don't know what they are - the help file for the LE should help you with this), Advanced Tab lets you choose what foundation you want on this building, Plugins Tab tells you what plugins this description file depends on (it will usually only be your model, unless you've done some tweaking in the Reader or DatGen), and the General Tab tells you all kinds of stuff that may or may not be important to you. Note that you can make no changes to Plugins and General. Once you've made all the changes you'd like to make, hit "OK" and the PM will give you the above window. If you ever want to make changes, you can always come back to the PM, click on the category in the navigation tree, and double-click your description file to make changes. You will not have to re-build the lot or re-export the model for the changes to take effect. That's it for the PM, so you can go ahead and close it. Next, the Lot Editor. I'm going to explain to you very basically how to put your BAT creation on a lot. If you need to know how to use the LE itself, I'd suggest looking for the guide included with it. It will either be in: Start >Programs (All Programs in XP)> Maxis SimCity 4 Lot Editor Manual -or- C:\Program Files\Maxis\Sim City 4\Lot Editor Manual (HTML document) When you open the Lot Editor, you will need to pick a lot to modify. Be careful what you pick here. The lot you pick must be the same type (ie - CO, CS, R, etc) and at least large enough to accommodate your building. The wealth level (ie - §§§, §§, or § is unimportant. I always pick a lot at least a bit bigger than what I'm looking for. NOTE: If you get into the lot and can't locate your building, double-check to make sure you are in the right type and the lot is definately big enough to accomodate the building. Sometimes, if I can't locate my building, I make the lot way too big for what I'm trying to do just to make sure it's not that the building is out of scale. To get your building on this lot, first go to the Building tab, click on "Replace Item", find your building and click on it, click "OK", and create your lot as you see fit. Notice I made this one a 2x3 instead of a 3x3 like I said I would? That's a matter of personal preference, but when I looked I thought this building would look better on a smaller lot. Besides, it's my tutorial and I can do what I want. So there. (LOL) Once you're ready to save, click the "Save As" button (this is very, very important - otherwise you will overwrite whatever lot you picked to begin with). Give it some kind of appropriate name in the "Select Name" box. The LE will automatically give you the type, wealth level, growth stage, and lot size of the lot you originally picked. You can change them to something more appropriate like shown (I like trying to stick with the already established naming scheme - makes everything easier for me, but you can pretty much do whatever you want here as long as its unique). We're almost done! The very last step is to test your lot in the game. I believe this is even more important than getting the perfect-looking lot, or getting that front overhang just so. Nothing in the world is worse (well, there are worse things, but this is an example) than uploading a lot that you say does X, Y, and Z, but it doesn't. This is also part of where the temptation comes to make a ploppable. Ploppables are a dime a dozen, but growables will get noticed. There is absolutely nothing wrong, however, if you make a ploppable version (you may want to look into getting the RCI Plop Mod from ST by RalphaelNinja), but you must test both. What you'll be looking for here is little out of the ordinary things, like the query name isn't right, or the number of jobs is way out of proportion, or things like the circled foundation. In addition, you'll want to make sure that the building turned out like you wanted it to. Remember how dark everything looked in gmax? It will not quite look the same in SC4. You may notice most (or all) of the textures turned out lighter than you anticipated. I chose some of the textures on purpose to demonstrate this. At this point, you'd probably want to go back to your model and tweak it. Whenever you pick textures, just remember to get it about 2 or sometimes 3 shades darker than you actually want it to look (if you have a high-falutin' program like Fireworks or Photoshop, they can really help with this). Take note that if you get the lot into the game and find out that something isn't quite right with the model, then it's perfectly OK to change the model and re-export. At least with all the files I've used, the export will overwrite the old one (which means it keeps everything you had originally changed to the description and lot, so no need to recreate them). It would also be a good idea (and I usually do this) to define the model as a park just so I can plop it down in the game before I finalize a lot or descriptions just so that I can see what it looks like. To take care of the foundation, you have a few choices: go back and make your building a perfect rectangle, create a custom foundation, or make it so the lot doesn't conform to slope (or does it very slightly). I wouldn't want to go back and change the model at all. I've heard nothing but trouble comes out of the foundations (though, I've never tried it). The best (and easiest) solution would be to simply make sure the lot either doesn't conform to slope, or that it doesn't do that very much. See the LE manual for help with that. (In the first export, I had to fix a problem and forgot to change the windows back to blue - sorry if that caused any confusion.) I replaced the a couple of the offending light textures with darker ones. I think it looks a lot better! (In case you're wondering, the corners and window sills were replaced with the same texture that was used on the foundation/roof overhangs - the foundation/roof overhangs were replaced with this texture.) Of course, this little building doesn't come very near Maxis quality, but it'll get you off to a very good start! Happy BATting! Please Note: This texture is not presently available to download... it should be available within a few weeks. Appendix Tips, Tricks and Troubleshooting This page will cover a (very limited) few more advanced tips, some time-saving tricks, and a little troubleshooting. First, the troubleshooting. Don't you just hate it when something like this happens? This one is simple, the building was not centered on the origin before it was exported. Simply go back into gmax, center the building (group the whole building and X/Y move it to 0). They get harder, I promise. What if in the render, or in the LE and SC4 all you see is something like this sitting on your lot instead of your nice, beautiful building? This one's simple too, the LODs are too small for the model. Refitting LODs in the BAT rollout will fix this one. The difficult ones are coming, I really do promise. If you get something like this, watch out cause your model is done for... No, just kidding, it can be fixed. Maxis suggested that the above problems could be a lighting rig or LOD problem and suggested that the lighting rig should be deleted, then re-fitted, and the same for the LODs. For me, that didn't work. Instead, I did the following (can be considered a general "fix-all" solution for something really wonky that nobody seems to know what it is): 1. Select your entire model, leaving out any cameras or lights you didn't add; 2. Go to File >Save Selected and give your building a unique name (this is the same as exporting just roof junk); 3. Open a completely clean BAT file (the best way to make sure this happens is close the BAT and re-open); 4. Go to File >Merge and select your building model; 5. Re-export. Problem solved! Something like this is just like Maxis suggested, an LOD or Lighting/Camera Rig problem. Since it went all buggy for no apparent reason, it's a good idea to start with a clean slate. Note that first, you may want to double-check to make sure you don't have any geometry or splines unexpectedly sticking way out of the model. If you export your new skyscraper, and then notice to your dismay that the lights don't seem to go all the way up, it can be heartbreaking. This is usually (not always) a lighting rig problem (ie - the rig isn't big enough for your building). To fix this, delete your current lighting rig by going to File >XRef Scene and removing whatever's there. Next, hit the "Add" and navigate to: C:\gmax\gamepacks\BAT\scenes\CamLightRigs There are four lighting rigs - Rig (default), RigMedium, RigBig, and RigHuge. Maxis seemed to indicate that these rigs should accomodate all possible sizes of buildings, but it is possible to create your own (I'm not even going to begin to get into that - check the BAT help files for more information). My suggestion would be that if the huge rig is still too small for your building, then your building will probably cause all kinds of problems in game due to its size. Scale it. Suppose you've gone through all the hard work of creating a building, exporting it, and putting it in the game only to find out it's way out of scale? Or, suppose you want to re-use your gorgeous HVAC unit and turns out it looks way too big on your new building? Select and Scale will help here. - WARNING - This becomes very tedious. It's always better to try keeping the correct scale in mind at all times. The first thing you'd want to do is decide exactly what needs scaling. Does the entire building need to be taller? Shorter? Wider? Or maybe that overhang is too small after all? What you'd want to do is select everything you want to scale (most likely it's going to be the entire building) and group them (not absolutely necessary, but it really helps). Next, you'll need to pick one of the scaling options: 1. Select and Uniform Scale - keeps the object's proportions while scaling - so if you make the building narrower, it will also make it shorter and smaller front to back. 2. Select and Nonuniform Scale - does not keep the proportions - will give it a "stretched" or "squashed" look - whatever you change will be the only scale changed. 3. Select and Squash - seems to do just about what Nonuniform Scale does, but I've never really used it. Once you have your scaling option selected, and your objects grouped, it's now time to scale! Unfortunately, scaling doesn't seem to be an exact science as shorter buildings in SC4 have been exaggerated to show detail and taller ones have been scaled back so they're not overwhelming (but if you model the way I showed you, this shouldn't be a problem). What you're going to do is type in whatever you want to change in X, Y, and Z. Just like with moving, X will always change left/right, Y front/back, and Z up/down. The numbers in these boxes are percentages, so if you want to increase the height by 10%, then you'd type 110 in the Z box. If you make a mistake, it's easily undone by changing the number back to 100. Just be forewarned, you can spend hours scaling something and still have it turn out wrong. Also, if all you need to change is the building itself and none of it's detailing, you will need to manually move the detailing back to where it should be. See, told ya it can be very tedious. NOTE: If you change the value for Z, you will have to place the building back on the X/Y plane (2d world), or else you'll lose that part of your model underground! With enough attention to detail, with just the information I've given, you can model some pretty amazing stuff. Some tips: 1. Detail, detail, detail - almost every detail you put in will show in the render. 2. Text - for any kind of text to show well at all, it needs to be extruded (just like any other spline) - for something that's "painted on", an extrude of 0.1 or a little less will do nicely. 3. Textures - they need to be at least 2 shades darker than you think they need to be to show like you expect them to. 4. Realistic buildings - avoid faking detail like the plague! Yes, the above model has faked detail, but just like MaxisBrian (I believe it was) suggested, detail should never be added with textures, textures should accentuate the detail. 5. Don't overlook the lot - you can have the bestest BAT building in the whole wide world, but if your lot is grass with a tree or two, people will likely ignore it. 6. Windows - it is OK to place a rectangle behind the glass of a window to give it the illusion something's going on inside - how insane would it be to model every single room of a 55-story office building (note that you can put one huge rectangle behind the glass and use a bitmap with lots of little squares going on)? 7. Window glass - instead of modeling every single pane of glass, why not put one huge rectangle centered in the wall? This is great if you're going to do the night lighting inside modeled rooms, not so handy if you're going to use "nite" to light up the glass. 8. Never release before you're ready - no matter how much other people are pressuring you to release your work, remember that the building and the lot reflect on you. If it's not exactly how you want it, keep working and ignore the beggars! After all, what's most important is that you're happy with it, right? 9. Save often, and in multiple places - you never know when your file will be corrupted or your computer will lock! 10. If you don't know and can't find it, ask - the only way you'll ever know is to ask if you can't find the answer on your own. The only stupid question is the one never asked! Now that we're just about finished, a few tricks: If you're creating a taller building, like this 20-story office building (well, the wall of one), array is your best friend. Just like when you arrayed the window openings on BAT Tutorial, Inc, you will need to array your windows across. Unlike the tutorial building, however, you will also need to array the windows up. To accomplish this, you'll set your 1D array just like you would if it were only 1 floor, and change the 2D array (make sure to select the radio button) to the number of floors. Note that here, it's only necessary to make the Z for 2D the height of the floors. A few seconds later, you have a wall full of window openings! (After an extrude, of course.) Let's suppose that you have something like the upper left-hand picture, but you want it to look more like the night render? You'd need to light it, of course! (I did this one in a bit of a hurry, so it looks like crud - but anyway.) I'm really not going to explain this in explicit detail, but I included a screenie of the settings I used for this particular model. In this model, there are 6 spots and one omni light. Also, if you want shadows to cast onto the ground, you'll need to put something on the ground in the BAT - otherwise no shadows for you! The lighting above is for example only. Whenever I'm lighting a model, I usually end up playing with the settings and doing test renders over and over. Just remember that for this, unlike the texturing, SC4 has a tendency to make lights darker. That means you'll need the lighting to be a bit brighter than you actually want it to turn out. (For Vu Quest, I think I did about 30 or so test renders, and 4 exports.) Now, a few tips about editing your splines. Let's say you want a nice, bendy shape like this one? All you have to do is put an edit spline modifier on a spline (like a rectangle), use the selection method of "Vertex" in the edit spline rollout, and move the verticies up. If you move those little green boxes around, you can change the curve of the line. You can also delete verticies to create interesting shapes. If you delete a vertex, gmax will connect that side between the two verticies that the deleted vertex used to lie in the middle of. Be careful, though. If you delete all of the verticies, they will disappear, but the spline will still be there. If you want to create a quick and simple arch (this can be a little tedious if you don't have a good eye for it) you can simply edit the spline. All you have to do is apply an edit spline modifier to the rectangle, and (using the selection method of "Vertex") pick individual verticies to move the green boxes around until you get a pretty good curve out of it. Lastly, if you don't want the sides to be curved, but don't want to mess around with changing the curve of the line, an edit mesh modifier is for you. Slap an edit mesh modifier on your spline, choose vertex or face in the rollout, and move until your heart's content. There will be no curvature to the faces, they'll just use the shortest possible distance. That looks complicated, don't it? Well, I'll explain it. Let's suppose you wanted to make a roof like what's on top of Vu Med farther up the page. You'd follow these steps: 1. Set Grid and Snap Settings to "Vertex" and "Grid Points". 2. Assuming you already have an extruded rectangle on the roof, snap a pattern of lines like so (note that you have to complete each side - ie, the shapes on all four sides are complete polygons). When you snap that last vertex, window 7 will appear. Click "Yes" so that the shape becomes one poly. 3. Put an edit mesh modifier on each of your roof sides, and you can either use the "Vertex" or "Face" selection method in the edit mesh rollout to move the tops of them up like so. 4. Snap a rectangle into the opening in the top, and move it down a bit. Also, in this step, you'll need to snap rectangles in the empty space between the rooftop and the upper edge of your side roof pieces (4A). For these, the rectangle will be made facing you. So, if you snap the rectangle in the left view, the rectangle will be facing left. So you don't have to go through messy extrudes, simply rotate the rectangle 180 degrees to face the opposite direction. Clone and/or create new rectangles until you have all of the empty space filled. 5. So there's some kind of edging to this roof, snap lines with the Generate Mapping Coords and Display Mesh boxes checked. Note that for this, you only snap the lines where you don't already have one - you don't want them to overlap. 6. SUCCESS! You now have a complex-looking, but pretty simple to make, rooftop for your new buildings. Remember when we deleted part of our bend pipe for the back of the HVAC and I said I'd show you how to fill in the empty spaces later? I didn't lie, it just took me awhile to get to it. (Go back to Minute Details if you don't remember about this.) OK, I took a cylinder, put an edit mesh modifier on it, and using select "Vertex" deleted all but the outer 3 rings. This will leave the back part of the object empty and see-thru. To fix that, you'd need to pick "Edge" selection in the Edit Mesh rollout, and rotate one of your viewports until you can clearly see just the back part of the cylinder (like the picture with the yellow circle on it). Very carefully, select the edge that's over the empty area (it will turn red). Next, in the "Edit Geometry" rollout, change the Extrude to the negative of the height of your shape and hit the Extrude button (ie- if your geometry was 120 meters tall, then the extrude would be -120). Do this for all the remaining edges until the back is filled in. Remember also that if you fill in the back of the cylinder this way, the back will be one face. This means that if you put a texture on it, it will be stretched across the back face. Just thought I'd warn you so you didn't get the same nasty surprise I got. When you're done, you will notice some very strange shading on the geometry. Do not worry about this at all, it doesn't show in the render. Well, I could go on and on and on with tips and tricks, but I suppose that's about it for now. Using all of the methods I've shown you, some pretty impressive buildings should begin to appear on the STEX. Remember our deal, though, NO DUPLICATES OF BAT TUTORIAL, INC. Please - I don't wanna get in trouble with Grampa Al or dirk. HAPPY BATTING! Links to other parts of this tutorial: part1, part 2, part 3

1) Using ILives Reader, select the lot exemplar file ... you should see a screen similar to this what you see below. In the empty space below, right click with your mouse and select 'add property' 2) In the pop up box, select 'LotConfigPropertyWaterCompatibility' under the 'name' field. 3) In the 'values as text' field near the bottom, type '1', then push the first 'apply' button, then the next 'apply' button. 4) You should see a new property under your lot exemplar. 5) Finally, under the 'sub files' tab, select the 'ReIndex' option, then again under the 'sub files' tab, select 'Rebuild Directory File'. 6) Last but not least, save your file (or save as). Fini!!

This tutorial will help you activate the night lights that come with certain BATs from the STEX. It has been discussed numerous times in the forums and its question comes up repeatedly: How do I get the night lighting to work? There are several steps to take and most of them involve downloading additional patches and tools which will allow you to install the BAT update that activates the lights. Please note that you will need to have Rush Hour or the Deluxe edition installed or it will not work at all. *Please note, that if you do not want the SimCity 4 BAT installed, or have no intention of using it, simply download the BAT update. This will ultimately allow you to have nightlights in your cities. Be sure to use steps 1 and 4-5. 1. Patch your game Go to http://www.ea.com/simcity-4-deluxe and download the Rush Hour/Deluxe edition patch for your game. Do not forget to select the correct patch for the territory you live in. After the update is downloaded, install it. 2. Install Gmax (optional) To be able to install the BAT, you will need Gmax installed, so download Gmax for free here: http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax 3. Install the BAT (optional) After Gmax is installed, you can install the Building Architect Tool (BAT) which can be found here: http://kurier.simcityplaza.de/download.php?file=303&go=1 When you have downloaded the file, install it. 4. Update the BAT We are almost done. The last step to take is updating the BAT. You can find the update here: http://kurier.simcityplaza.de/download.php?file=307&go=1 Once more, download and install. 5. Completion Once all of the above steps are completed start up your game. Open up a city that has downloaded BATs in it - which also have night lighting mind you - and run the simulation for a short time at day time. Then switch over to night time and if you installed everything correctly the night lighting should work.