Heyyy there, SimCity world! 
In this tutorial, we go over the process to reskin a vehicle (or automata) in SimCity 4.
Today, I'd like to teach you how to make a "reskin" for any vehicle that you choose. I always wanted a tutorial like this when I was first starting out, and someone has yet to write one for Simtropolis. The programs we'll be using are very basic, some are a little outdated, however, they've always been the go-to programs for me. 
Step 1, The "skin" we'll be modifying:
Find an automata vehicle that you wish to reskin. For this tutorial, we're just going to use my tram. The STEX link for my file can be found:
Step 2, Programs we'll need:
There's a few programs we'll need for this process.
-
FiSHMAN Beta, which can be found here.
Unzip/extract the file, no installation required. - iLive's Reader, which can be found here. The help/support/FAQ topic for iLive's Reader can be found at SC4 Devotion. Unzip/extract the file, no installation required.
- Of course, we'll also need some image editing program, even Microsoft Paint will do.
Step 3, Extracting the FSH file from iLive's Reader:
Open iLive's Reader, and click the logo in the top left corner, and select "open".
Navigate to the folder of my tram that we downloaded earlier and click the DAT file.
Once the file opens, click the "Fill the List" button.
Next, click on the FSH file. What you see in the display window to the right is how the "skin" will be displayed in-game. Now, right click on the FSH file, and a pop-up menu will appear. Select the first option: "Save selected files".
NOTE: Unless otherwise prompted, the all FSH files will be saved to the directory "My Documents" --> "ILives".
Step 4, Opening the newly-saved FSH file in FishMAN Beta to convert it to a PNG image:
Note: If FiSHMAN Beta seems to crash upon startup...
If you are running Windows XP/Vista, then download this file from the BSC LEX exchange. If you have not registered for the BSC LEX, then you must do so HERE.
To install the fix...
Extract/unzip the folder and copy the file "fishlib.dll" into your "FiSHMAN_Beta" folder, making sure to overwrite the existing file in the folder.
===========================================================================
Launch the FiSHMAN Beta exe file, and then click the "open button". If FiSHMAN crashes about startup, read the text above for a possible fix. If this doesn't work, feel free to send me a private message and I'll help you troubleshoot.
Once the program opens, select the "Open" button, and then navigate to the newly-saved FSH file that we saved in ILive's Reader. Once again, the default location for this file will be: "My Documents" --> "ILives".
Now, you should see a screen that looks like the one below. Click on the "#1" under the "Bitmap" folder. This is where our FSH file is.
Now that we see our skin on the right side, it's time to export an editable PNG file from the FSH image. We now right click on "#1", and hover over "Export", and then click "Color".
We're now prompted with a "save as" box, from which we save to any location.
IMPORTANT: Change the file type to "Portable Network Graphics", or "PNG". This is a file type that can be edited by MS Paint, and other image editing programs.
After you've saved, close the program, and don't save any changes.
Step 5, Editing the image:
We're now ready to edit our PNG file!! We can open the file up in any image editing program, and edit away!! I'm going to use MS Paint for simplicity's sake.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not edit over/shift any of the windows or lights. These aspects have their own template in ILive's Reader, which must be edited itself. We'll save that for another day.
For time's sake, I'm not going to make any changes to the image, however, the process is the same if you do.
Once you're done editing, save the file, and make sure the format is still "PNG"/"Portable Network Graphics".
Step 6, Converting the PNG image back into a FSH file:
Now, we'll need to open FiSHMAN Beta, again. This time, when the program launches, click the "Open" button and open the same FSH file that we saved from ILive's Reader, earlier.
This time, we're still going click on the "#1", however, we're going to hover over "Insert", and click "Bitmap".
A new window will open up titled "Insert New Bitmap". Click on the button to the right "Bitmap file", and navigate to the PNG file that you edited in the image editing program.
Make sure that the file type is set to "PNG image", so that we can find our new edited image.
Now, click "Ok" on the "Insert New Bitmap" box. It's not necessary that we alter any of the other settings.
Our new image file is now inserted. Now, go to "FIle" --> "Save As", and save the file. Make sure the file type is "FSH". In our next step, we'll insert this FSH file back into the original ILive Reader DAT file.
After the FSH file has been saved, we can close FiSHMAN Beta.
Step 7, Inserting the new FSH back into the DAT file:
Open ILive's Reader, and re-open the original DAT file from earlier. Be sure to click "Fill the List", just like last time.
Now, select the FSH file.
Next, right click on the FSH file that we just selected, and click "Insert File" on the pop-up menu.
We need to find new FSH file that we made with our edited image in it.
Once you click "Open", if you are prompted with a box similar to the one below scroll down to "FSH file", and click "OK". If you are not prompted with this box, do no worry, everything will still work.
There should now be two FSH files. Right click on the old one, and in the pop-up menu, click on "Remove file".
Now, click on the logo in the upper left hand corner, and click "Save As". Make sure to save the file as "DAT" file.
Well, there ya have it, you know how to reskin a vehicle! This will work for any automata vehicle: train, car, bus, boat, or plane!!
Feel free to send me a private message with any inquiries or feedback!
~ B-more4
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