DarkMatter

The problem was constant on my system. Neigher clouds nor fog faded out at all when I moved the mouse over them. They faded away normally and faded in normally when they appear and dissapear, but moving the mouse over them didn't have any effect whatsoever.

Hey Rubik, just out of curiosity, have you tried using any of the 3DSMax shaders like falloff and reflect/refract with gMax? I'm missing them sorely, but I never thought of using 3DSMax's in gMax. I wonder if its possible.

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Ok. Version 0.5 is up in the mods section. It works pretty well, although we still need to tweak the opaticy a bit. Red, about the opacity. It seems there is an unfortunate side effect, or else you edited more than you intended to. Normally, fog and clouds dissapear if you move the cursor over them. Well, with your effdir installed, fog and clouds always appear. This sometimes makes it hard to do stuff in your city.

Gah! BigRed....you need to upgrade man....check out NewEgg.com....WinXP Home (OEM) aint even $100...for a while, it was $89. Thats cheep considering the benefits of XP. /emoticons/2.gif>

Hey Trolca and gang. I don't know if you guys know this yet, but I think its possible to use LARGER textures for skins than the default ones. A skinned model uses pergentages, rather than pixel values, to assign that part of a texture gets assigned to what vertex. The values range from 0.0-1.0 for both U and V coordinates. I'm working on a skin editing tool in DatGen that might help facilitate the creation of larger, more detailed skins for train cars and other stuff like cars, trucks, etc. I think, currently, skin textures are 128x128 pixels. It should be possible to double that, up to 256x256 pixels, which would give you guys a LOT more room to work with, and should allow you to get more detail into your skins. I havn't fully figured out how to design the tool in DatGen yet, but I have a vauge idea, and I can explain it to anyone who is interested. Any thoughts?

Hmm...I don't think any programs at all will just import the properties.xml file (which is something I designed...I designed both versions, the one used for Ilives Reader, and the new one used in DatGen). Its not in any kind of standard, relational XML format...I just created my own schema and my own structure. (Thats the great thing about XML.) The properties.xml file isn't really the thing that needs organizing, really. If you download DatGen, check out the property manager. Its a GUI interface for viewing and editing properties, and its organized pretty well. Its going to get better once I finish the updates to DatGen. My properties.xml file also comes with a .xslt stylesheet, which allows you to simply double-click the xml file and view it in a web browser in a color-coded and fairly well organized format. There is a TON of other information here that could really use some organization. A nice web site with the information neatly organized and displayed would be great, and if we used a database to store the info, it would make future updates a breeze. I don't think anyone should be able to update though...pretty much, the only people who should be allowed to update the site would be Karybdis, Redlotus, myself, and a couple others (who don't visit much anymore). If your using Microsoft SQL Server for the database, it should be pretty easy to write a stored procedure (or better, a small VB/ADO application) to import the information from the xml file into the database. Its a pretty simple relational model. Getting properties.xml into a database is easy, thats not the big thing. The big thing is organizing and categorizing and inputting all the other info we have on modding into some kind of coherent interface. It won't be easy.

Hehe...did you forget something there Smurf? https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/28.gif> Red....its better...but almost too much better. They really do look like clouds in your picture. I tried to set the max alpha component to 192 in my mod, up from 128 (i.e. RGBA color...0-255 for each component). But like you said, it seemed to be fixed at a much lower value.

Ok, I'm putting in a call for requests for FiSHMan. I'm back to working on my programs, and, while I don't know exactly when I'll get to it, I want to update FiSHMan. I fixed a couple bugs already, but if anyone has some requests, I'd like to hear them. Everything beeing equal, I will do whatever you guys want with this program, if I can find the time, and if I can figure out how. I don't know everything, but I enjoy a challenge, so if you have a feature or change you want added to the program....bring it on! https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/9.gif>

Hey LowGenius. (Hehe...cool nick.) I'm intrigued by the idea, and I think it would be great if we could pull it off. Your Go-To man for the kind of data your looking for is probably Karybdis, but Ralphael Ninja and myself also know a good deal about this stuff. As for the data entry part....hehe...everyone hates that, man. I think your on your on there unless you find a bonafied, certified data entry dude who's a squadd groupie. /emoticons/35.gif> Now, on to other things. The Properties.xml file. I made some major changes to it a while back, but that broke compatability with the Reader, apparently. Thats a bummer, but I'm going to try to work with Ilive to bring him up to speed on the changes so he can update the reader. The reason I made the changes was for a couple reasons. First, the new structure is more organized and higherarchial, which should help make it easier to find properties. Second, I've started adding more information for each property, taken from Ingred.ini. This new information defines extranious information about each property like wether its a fixed or variable length, what the default reps are, and what the default values are. I have a new version of DatGen in the works that makes it MUCH easier to build exemplars from scratch, or just add new properties to existing exemplars. With this new info for each property, I can properly add new properties to an exemplar, with the right reps and the right default values, saving the user some time, and reducing the amount of bad exemplars. The new property insert window will also have some find features that make use of all the information for a property to allow you to narrow down the list of properties and find the one you need MUCH faster than scrolling through the whole list. I don't know how long it will take Ilive to add compatability for this, but I'll make sure he has all the info he needs to update the reader at some point in time. That way, we can go back to having just one properties.xml file, rather than having the two versions we have now. Finally, I'm going to work on merging our original list of properties with the official list. Some of our descriptions for properties were MUCH better than Maxis', which was a big help. The new properties.xml will also have an example attribute, which will contain example usage of some of the more complicated properties. DatGen will have a popup window with property usage info in the exemplar editor, and I'm sure Ilive will probably add something similar to the Reader. Anyway, lots of changes for exemplar editing are on the horizon, and I just wanted to prepare everyone before I made another release of properties.xml.

Well, I can do better than more pics. I'm releasing version 0.5 tonight, so people can have some fun, and see it move through their own buildings. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif> Keep in mind, fog only appears near water, and doesn't go far from it, so you'll only see it near buildings that are close to water. If RedLotus can fix the max opacity in the effect directory, and post a mod, I'll see how much more dense I can get the fog. As things are, I'm quite limited, and about the most I can do is make it appear at all, and control where it appears (i.e. only on flat ground, or near hills, etc.)

Hey, its Maxis Mike! I thought all the maxis dude were dead....or fell of the face of the earth....or were crushed by a meteor strike. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif> (Any chance you could get me into contact with Mike Cox? I've been trying to get ahold of him for almost two months on and off, but he truely seems to have dissapeared.) Anyway...for a test effect, it looks pretty good, just sparse. It only shows up in patches, but it would be cool if it would blanket areas that are covered in moisture (i.e. coast, bays, rivers, etc.), and it would be fun if it would climb small hills and spread accross some land area near water. If Maxis plans to release another expansion, I think a very cool feature would be improved ground fog that works at all zoom levels.

Trust me guys, its fog. The clouds in the game cast shadows on the land....ground fog doesn't. There arn't any shadows from the stuff in my screenshots. Also...take a close look at the third screenshot. There is a cloud in the upper right part of the picture....and the fog is in the lower center. You can see a distinct difference between clouds and fog. The final picture you can see a boat going through the fog as well, and you can see that the fog is obscured by the bridge....the fog doesn't obscure the bridge like a cloud would. It goes underneath it. And, once again, none of the fog casts any shadows on the ground in any of the screenshots like a cloud would. I've been modding since april last year. I know what I'm doing, and I know for a fact that this IS ground fog. I finally got it to show up on the ground, but its hard to see, so I won't waste bandwidth with a screenshot (I've seen it moving through buildings...its pretty cool. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/10.gif>). For the skeptics, you can check out the exemplar I edited...its got the following TGI: 0x6534284A 0x7A4A8458 0xC9B00BAA. Particle Count is, by default, zero. I upped it to a few thousand, and tweaked the other settings. I also changed some of the weather tuner as well to help fog appear more. It doesn't get very dense, but I think there is a hard-coded limit in the .exe that I can't change. The fog does follow wind direction though, so it will move along the surface of the water, and along the ground, like real fog. Oh, and one more bummer, which I can't seem to get past. Fog only shows up at zooms 1 and 2. I think its linked to the mountain clouds generator, which turns off cloud visibility once you zoom closer than zoom 2, which is a REAL bummer. Otherwise, I'd post close-up shots, and it would just be that much more fun to actually have fog in your cities.

Yeah, it follows the 24-hour clock. At 6am, it starts to taper off....by 10am, its completely gone....by 7pm, its completely back again. I think I'm going to change it so the fog starts to taper off at 7am, and is completely gone by 11am. Otherwise it dissapears too soon.

Hey Rubik....this is sort of off topic, but do you do architectural stuff for a living? I thought I knew, but I don't remember. Anyway, excellent work on the rest of the complex. Marriott looks excellent. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif> I finally got SC4 reinstalled and all my old cities added. Your WTC's are absolutely perfect, and I thank you for all the time you put into them. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif>

Even if you decode teh MAD header, we still need to decode the header for audio data. Its not the exact same as XA files, possibly very different. Can you post the current spec as well, so I can wrap my grimy fingers around it? /emoticons/9.gif>

but your thinking like these people are our workers DM, we cant just tell them to create sketches, and poof, out come sketches. Hmm...I don't know if I came off sounding like THAT. I don't think these people are workers. I was trying to clarify why I thought making buildings in the BAT was premature. But maybe more clarification is needed. Why do I think sketches are important? Modeling from scratch in 3D, using only a concept in your mind, is extremely difficult. Having some basic profile sketches (i.e. front, side, top) scanned into the computer give you some reference material. You stick these images as a texture on a simple plane in gMax and move them so you can see them in the top, front, and side viewports, and it can greatly help the modeling process. It gives you some basic guides on top of which to lay splines and other details. Sketching also helps creativity flow, and makes it easier to refine and improve a basic building concept. The sketch doesn't have to be good....it doesn't even have to be mediocre. It just has to start out as a basic rough of what you want your building to look like, and as a catalyst for creativity. I'm a highly creative person, and I've learned that several things help spark the idea generation process (which is critical to creativity): Brainstorming and Sketching. A Brainstorm is a simple process where you sit down for 10-15 minutes, with a pen and paper, and just write out every idea that comes into your mind for a particular topic. You write EVERY idea down, no matter how dumb, extreme, or down right crazy the idea is. Once you have your ideas written down, you cross off the obviously worthless ones, and do new brainstorms on some of the better but more general ideas. Its a classic process, and if a few people did that for this project, we could end up having some truly genious ideas. I've seen dozens of people come forward offering to be idea men.....so, here is one way to come up with ideas. I'm not trying to control people....just fuel them and their creativity.

Here is my thinking on this. This project has garnered a TON of interest, and all the prominent members of SimTropolis with the skills required to make it happen have put their bet in. We all want this project to be high quality, and we want it to have a cohesive, Martian look and feel. To accomplish that, we need a few things, but two important one are this. First, we are gonna need a TON of skilled modelers and BAT users. People who know exactly how the BAT works, exactly how to get a building to render properly, etc. I've been using the BAT for a long time, before it was released, as a beta, and I still can't make buildings as good as Maxis's. Second, we need to come up with a standard look and feel for martian buildings. Something that as many people as possible agree will give Martian cities a truely martian feel to them. To do that, we need to first draw up sketches of architectural design, scan them into a computer, and post them. We then need to do some preliminary models to get a feel for what architecture is possible in the BAT. Before we jump off the cliff and dive into making Mars buildings, which we have no idea what they should look like, why not hone your skills making buildings for the normal SC4 look and feel? We have hundreds of buildings from Maxis to reference, and making normal buildings will allow novice modelers to improve their skill, not just with modeling, but also with using textures properly. A couple more months with the BAT trying to replicate Maxis's quality and detail in normal buildings will build up our team of skilled BAT users and 3D modelers, which were going to need to pull this Mars project off decently. Again, this is just my take on the subject.