dudeson

I have an Nvidia 7800GS graphics card. I had to set the game renderer to software, not hardware render, to get the game to work. Since you have a similiar Graphics card, if you haven't set it this way give it a try. I also noticed that your graphics card driver needs updated. You can get it at the nvidia website. Make sure your soundcard driver is up to date as well. I have a 3.2GHz Intel CPU, ASUS P4P800E Mobo with hyperthreading, and was overclocking both Graphics card and CPU, and the game runs fine on my PC. Interesting though, that it runs better (far less crash to desktop on zoom problem) when I disable Hyperthreading and set my CPU and GPU clock speeds back to standard freq.

N_O_Body: Maybe they saw people talking to their pets (like Nerd_Guy's Uncle Jack) and gave them reason to think it. Telepathic eh? That's what makes it seem so efficient... Nerd_Guy: Crazy thing I saw a month ago... Well, sometimes a lot of wind where I live.. and one day I saw what looked like a Wal-Mart plastic sack just cruzing along it's merry way about 30 feet over the top of my neighborhood. I watched until it floated out of view. Maybe it was lost, but it didn't seem to care. MsD: You're squirrel can really bust a move. It's hilarioius. Is that what he does when he gets a fresh supply of nuts?

ky72x: yup... that's the one. Cool that you know what it is! My nephew used to play a lot, so I saw him using this one once and thought it made a good mascot. BTW, the word for "Pet" in spanish is "mascote" which I think is hilarious... Some pets would probably make good macots for their owners. I agree about College... they were some of the greatest times... And I had way more freetime in college than I have ever had since... which of course was all spent "studying." N_O_Body I haven't been in town for awhile and thought I'd stop in. Good to see you. Nice autosystem. It reminds me of the one on Star Trek. But seems to be a newer model ... a bit more efficient I think, and shinier.

Hey, I'm gonna make my 100th post here too... someday... I don't like being a "squatter." That doesn't sound very nice. Boy, hot in the Texas desert today... Many more days like this and I'll turn into a tumbleweed... I sure could use an Ice Tea please...

Is this the Rita's Ice House on the river walk in San Antonio?

A couple more: Cow Palace <EDIT> more like a civic center but still a great name </EDIT> The Warfield (in San Francisco) The Fox Theatre (in Boulder Colorado)

N_O_Body: That's really a code to one of your secrete recipes, isn't it? I just know you've got em' stashed around here somewhere. *continuing to look around* I bet I need The Moose Factory secrete decoder ring. sloppet: Hey, a lot of people like you. And if you weren't here, who else would have way cool avatars that slightly freak me out? Although, the cartoon dog with the hat was great... the one just a week or 2 ago. brancra: the schools in Nebraska let out middle end of May as well. There are graduations going on this weekend I think. But most people I've met seem to let out in June like yours.

The Soup Nazi had secret soup recipes. Do you have any secret grammar recipes? I bet N_O_Body has a few secret recipes stashed behind the bar. Or else they're stashed in an armour around here somewhere. *looking suspicously around the bar*

Shadow_Assassin, maybe you're having the same problem I am. (solution in EDIT below) I know you asked for help about a month ago, but I just ran into this. The problem I have is that the Bat4Max tool, when you export in 3DS to generate the FSH files, always uses Instance ID (IID) numbers in the 0x00020000 range, for each render it does. When it should be using the IIDs in the .SC4model file that was created after exporting with gmax. When gmax generates the .SC4model file - when you export the LODs from gmax - it might use IID numbers in a different range, say like 0x00070000, or 0x00080000. Inside the .SC4Model file, there are the various FSH images of your building, and there are also S3D files which piece those images together, depending on view and zoom level, to create the graphic. The S3D files are "linked" to the appropriate FSH images by IID numbers. When the numbers don't match up correctly, you get a mess. The Bat4Max tool should be pulling the correct "base" IID from the file name of the .SC4Model file, which you have to copy and paste into the Bat4Max Export tool. From that it can give the FSH files the correct Instance ID numbers and everything works. In my case, the Bat4Max script is not taking the IID from the filename. It insists on always using IID numbers in the 0x00020000 range. Maybe need to remove and reinstall all the Bat For Max files. <EDIT> I saved my 3DS model under a different name, and rendering from that one all works fine. The Bat4Max tool is using the correct IID numbers again. Go figure. So if you have problems, and nothing else seems to work, resave with a different filename. I know that sounds goofy. Also! Make sure not to use WhiteSpace in the .SC4Model name (the human readable part). Like, don't use "Mullet Head-0x5ad0e817_0x71516c87_0xb0000.SC4Model", but do use "MulletHead-0x5ad0e817_0x71516c87_0xb0000.SC4Model." If you have whitespace, it won't generate the FSH files from the rendered images. For reasons I won't explain. This post is long enough! BTW, sorry about the length of this post. I didn't set out to write a book on FSH and S3D files. Hope somebody finds it helpful </EDIT>

Problem: Using night light material library with nite windows at the same time. In 3dsMax I can do nite windows by selecting the windows I want to light, then enabling them with the enable checkbox in the BAT for Max tools for nite windows, and it works great. But if I load a night light material library (one that the library name ends in "_night" or "-night"), so I can get some text to self-illuminate during night time, the windows don't light up anymore. So I take it that you can't use both methods of night lighting at the same time? I've searched this thread for about an hour now, and can't find anthing mentioning this problem. So does anyone have a suggestion on how use night time only self-illumination, and also do nite windows using the enable checkbox in Bat for Max tools? If I texture the windows myself, using a material from the C:\3dsmax\gamepacks\BAT\Maps\NightWindows, which texture zoom level should I use?. I think I saw someone using zoom level 3... And if I do it that way, will it look like normal window nite lighting? Also any suggestion on Self-Illumiation level? Thanks!

Yes... Congratulations N_O_Body. Cheers to you! *holding up frothy mug-o-root beer* You're one of the good guys.

<edit> something strange happening.. it posted this twice. well, it didn't post it, then I rewrote it, and then both of them appeared. Ever feel like your in the Twilight Zone? hmmm... maybe a server delay since this is a new page...

vandy: My grandmother has one on the wall in the same place... it's a ceramic oval with a pciture of a little bird painted on... been there my whole life. Goes something like "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat". sloppet: I'm jealous. Mayday is a holiday in Mexico too... it's their Labor Day holiday. I work there, but the holdiay doesn't apply to me. Ah well, at least there will be good parking spots. N_O_Body: I'm glad it was just a practice. You did communications in the Military?

hym: thanks for saying that. I was afraid I was the only one sitting around on winter Friday night teaching myself C++ and Java, and reading about Andy Grove and how the transistor transformed "everything"... ha ha <edit> I can remember my grandfather's old tube radio... the same type of radio from which H.G. Wells would have been listened to. As a little kid, It was mysterious looking into the back of it seeing the tubes glow red...

Wow... You just whipped this out while waiting for the furniture guy to arrive?! It's even got the red cement poles in front of the doors. Nice details... looks like one of the trash dumptsers is for recyclables. Great night lites too... especially the shadows from the front doors. The Sears bldg redone looks great as well. I like it a lot better than the other one.

OK... I know this probably isn't a smart question... I'm kinda new at this... But, since no dependancies, is the parking lot a plane with a "parking lot" texture and then lights [cleverly] placed at the right spots to line up with it? Or did you model all the cars, trees, and lightpoles? Which would be handy to have, just like a file full of roof junk, to import into your model. I'm asking because the sign [which is really cool] would have to be part of the model since no dependancies... <EDIT> On 2nd thought, it looks like you did 2 seperate models.. each with different "parking lot texture" and somehow merged them into one .SC4model and .SC4desc file... since the number of cars is different. But I have no idea how SC4 does the nite lights. Are there 2 seperate Building Exemplars (one for day and one for night) or 1 Exemplar and 2 Resource Key Types?

Nice work. Hope I can eventually get the hang of BATting. I like the look of the building a lot. Only comment I have is the garage bays for the Auto Service center look closer to double wide glass entry doors for people (like you might find on a large department store) instead of large up and down garage doors for cars. Maybe with some of them open would be cool. Or maybe it just looks like that zoomed out... Great work on the SEARS logo... it really looks like neon!

Agreed... What a great surprise. Every day I'm wondering if it'll be up yet and wow... I wasn't even thinking about it this time. I also thought it was the STEX for a second there... ha ha Thanks for the hard work Dirk. Same to you Simtropolis Help Squad. ST5.0 rocks!

Xielos, I'm in the same boat... only I played SC3000 a lot, a long time ago. I'm also new to ST... But looks like I'm a $%&^! again... You're right... SC4 is way tougher. (BTW I think SC4 is great, but I don't like the terrain editing.. SC3000 was easier to form land, but at least farms are easier to do) sloppet and onlyplace4, thanks for the great ideas to get rolling on SC4!

Hi Folks... I'm a video game junky from the 80s.. I had a Commodore 64... Was a huge fan of Zork and other text adventure games "back in the day"....if anybody remembers those! ha ha I used to play SC3000 a lot. I'm an engineer and also a Mario Bros fan... I think it's incredible the amount of customizable content capable with SC4... and the wealth of info. that's shared in ST on how to go about it... I used to know 3DSmax 3.0 and now re-learning 3D modeling on a new PC I built, hopefully to contribute a decent BAT someday... Good to be here