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rsc204

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Everything posted by rsc204

  1. Visual glitches and bugs

    Thanks, my current driver version is the same as yours, although the date is the 16h for some reason, back in January (I think there have been two or three updates since) running OpenGL would cause coloured lines to appear everywhere and it was just a mess. I figured Intel wouldn't fix support for old games, but perhaps something's changed with the OpenGL compatibility for the better, it gives me some hope as I'm sure 4400 and 4600 drivers are much the same. I can't test this right now, I know I shouldn't be so disorganised, but modding SC4 as much as I do takes a toll on my desktop, it's littered with files in progress and related stuff over 2 screens. If I switch the Intel GPU to my primary display (so I can run SC4 with the Intel card) Windows will reset the placement of every icon on my desktop and it will be a nightmare. I'll whip a fresh copy of Win7 on a spare HDD and test it there when I get the chance.
  2. RHW Real Highways Help

    First tip, especially for curves, ramps and elevated sections you really want to be working on flat land. You can either use the terraforming tools or plop lots of sinlge 1x1 Road/RHW tiles individually and they will level off an area for you. I'm guessing that's why the curves won't plop right now. Drag RHW from the end of the exit lanes of the ramps and you should be able to connect it directly into your streets like a regular road/street interchange. Honestly can't remember ever using streets for this, so maybe if that doesn't work transition to road for the junction. The RHW system works as an override network, when you place the starter pieces this tells the game what network the generic RHW piece you drag should display. However a number of things can cause instability, especially a lot of networks crossing next to each other or puzzle pieces (such as ramp, transitions or curves). If the overrides fail in this way you can either add another override piece (assuming there is space) or plop fillers (Fillers icon in Highway menu) to fix the markings in place. For RHW-4 you have both straight and diagonal fillers but they do not cover every RHW possibility. Generally speaking all this stuff really just takes experience, the more you practice the better you will get and the more understanding of the features available and their limitations you will have. Take it easy, open a test region and just play with the pieces building through some of the intersections there are tutorials for and you'll gain confidence in no time. One last tip, you should try to use one of the RHW Height or Flex-Height transitions to switch to E-RHW (Elevated RHW) so you get nice smooth ramps, it looks like you've tried to just transition them, they don't come automatically like the Maxis Highway ramps, you need to place them like with the Road/Ave elevated pieces.
  3. Visual glitches and bugs

    Well, I was referring specifically to my experience with the problem at hand which does not necessarily reflect that of others nor indicate my level of knowledge on the subject matter. However, I have a lot of personal/career experience that means I have the technical knowledge too as a matter of fact, although that really wasn't my point. See this is where I fear I might be misinterpreting you because that statement would seem to assume I know nothing about the subject matter. However since one of the first things I learned fixing computers was to never use definitives I would use the phrase "I think" rather than "it is" because I simply know better than to assume there are no other possibilities. If your hypothesis centers around a Windows update being the problem, then the experience I outlined in my previous post contradicts your theory, assuming I have the update you think is at fault. On the other side if I don't have the update, that would also contradict your theory. I'm not trying to win points by stating this, I am trying to help by providing additional data as I too would like to see these problems overcome. With that in mind feel free to PM me if there is any data I can provide you with to assist tracking down the problem.
  4. Visual glitches and bugs

    Well I've been building/fixing computers and running games since the days of boot disks for making individual games work. I bet 170€ (I didn't need to spend that much, obviously) on my Nvidia card that the problem couldn't be solved, the crazy thing is that I actually really like the Intel graphics, it was a genuine surprise to see how far integrated graphics have come in just a few years and my PC was totally silent to boot. I never wanted to install anything else and would remove the Nvidia tomorrow if I could make it work. Don't lose that old Intel Driver you have, I suspect finding it again would be problematic. The solution for PC owners to this problem is easy, buy a cheap graphics board for 40€ to get around the Intel chip, but all the people who buy laptops without an add on graphics module are essentially buggered. On the flipside, as is common to make things work better with newer games and systems often there is a price, compatibility is usually that price. There is nothing wrong with what Intel are doing, we must remember that SC4 players in the grand scheme of millions of computers sold around the world is very much a minority in terms of it's needs.
  5. Visual glitches and bugs

    Sorry I think it might have been you that gave me that information before... I guess the 4440 has been around longer than the 4600, I built my Haswell at launch in Sep 2013, so there may not be any drivers much before that that support it (4600 was new with Haswell refresh). I remember spending a lot of time trying to find old Intel drivers, they do not make it easy and I was never able to make the 4600 work. But this does not really fit with my personal experience, with the Intel, SC4 had too many graphic problems such as those described by others here, I also had a CTD problem I could not solve running Doom 3. With those exceptions it generally worked with older games and no problems with newer stuff. Realising I couldn't use HD mods with the Intel chip, I quickly dug out my old Radeon 3870 and installed it, solving all my problems. The board was pretty old and after a month or two the fan died so I replaced it with an Nvidia GTX 750ti, which also works great. If the problem originated with an update for Windows, then based on my experience running the Intel graphics that would conclude I had this update installed. So why therefore is it running on the other two boards problem-free? I think there is a really mixture of problems coming relating to modern PC's and running SC4 well, problems with Win 8/8.1, Newer versions of Direct X and WDDM drivers all seem to be affecting players in one way or another. One thing I am sure of (until someone can prove otherwise) SC4 can not run hardware rendering properly with Intel HD4600 chips and Win 7. Since we know some Intel drivers in the past worked OK, that suggests to me changes in the drivers have made them less compatible. The latest 4600 drivers are the same as the 4400 and other Intel graphics chips and users of the 4400 with newer drivers have reported the same problems I get with the 4600. In all likelihood that screams driver compatibility to me.
  6. MGB Lot and Mod Shack

    LHD NWM TuPEPs Centre Tile Fix (Legacy Puzzle-Based) I'm not sure why, but my LHD install of NAM 32 (yes this is an old post), doesn't have a blank NWM TULEP Center-tile. Being picky, I started out to make a single blank piece, but then I decided I didn't like the mismatch of textures, so I fixed those as well. Note this is for Euro textures and LHD ONLY, this needs to load after your z___NAM folder, but ideally in the last folder that loads to ensure no problems: MGB - LHD-NWM-Tuleps Center-tile fix.zip Just to be clear, any attached files like this will not be subject to support in the way released mods would be, I will try to help with any problems though. Feel free to make requests, but bear in mind I am free also to decline. I plan on doing a lot of work for LHD stuff in the future, mostly just correcting stoplines, but I generally try to improve anything I find that I dislike on the way too. ========================================================================================= MMP Beta Testing Hi I have just finished a set of MMP's for trucks from JES Vol.06, if anyone would like to get these early all I ask is that you provide me with some feedback on any problems you may encounter. Please PM me if you are interested.
  7. Visual glitches and bugs

    I'd be interested to know what driver revision you are using from Intel... I have a 4600 but they use very similar drivers, it works but the graphic corruption makes it unplayable for me. Personally I bypassed the problem with a new Nvidia card, I'd still like to know about any fix though.
  8. Version 2.0

    2,794 Downloads

    The MTRDK came about as part of my earlier Sidewalk/Texture modding, but it's as useful today as it's always been. This updated version relies solely on the Automation options which are included in Rivit's excellent GoFSH tool (required). This download allows you to automate the creation of one or more of the following texture overrides: Sidewalk Mod Maxis Texture Replacer Extended Maxis Texture Replacer If you are creating a new Sidewalk Mod, using this download you can create a working override with just a few clicks. This is perfect for trying out multiple styles or changes without having to convert or pack textures and the like manually. But the core function is to take an existing sidewalk and extend it, so that it covers the vast number of lots that use the Maxis LE Textures. This image shows a city which is mostly comprised of Maxis lots, whilst a custom sidewalk has been installed, this is how things look without an additional Maxis (Lot Editor) Texture replacer. Here is the same scene, but including the MTRDK and MTRDK Extended replacements to match the sidewalk. Note how the Plaza and many commercial lots now have base textures that match the installed sidewalk, as do the driveways and other parts of the residential lots. In short this small mod, (otherwise included as part of SWN), can be used to both create an initial sidewalk mod and/or to better unify your game by adding your sidewalk to the Maxis lot textures which make use of them. I've kept this mod as a separate download, because many people might just want to update their own sidewalks, without using the entire SWN package. But it may also be useful for SWN users who'd like to customise these textures from their defaults. For example, the Paeng Sandstone (PSS) version of SWN is based around using all three sidewalk wealth textures. But Paeng's Sidewalks mod includes the ability to customise which wealth texture is used for each wealth. You can set GoFSH to mirror how you are using the three different wealths, to create MTRDK files that better match your personal setup. Of course, this process will work with any sidewalk or even textures you can find/make yourself, to create a game-ready mod using them. INSTALLATION It is very important that you extract the contents of the included .zip file into a single folder and that you do not change or alter the file/folder structure in any way. The extracted files are known as a repository, which includes all the resources you need for use with GoFSH, so it can build your custom mod for you. Using the Repository (Instructions) Run GoFSH and Click on the Run Script option from the main interface. Click on Select Buildfile, you need to tell GoFSH where the script from the download is on your computer and select it. Click on Select Textures The first thing you need is between one and three sidewalk textures, if using an existing mod this post details how to extract the textures from your sidewalk mod to use with this process. But you can simply click the Paving ? buttons to select any BMP texture to use for each of the three Sidewalks: At this point you can click on Start Build and GoFSH will create your custom mod. The created .dat files will appear in the same folder where you extracted the repository. Please see here for full step-by-step instructions on setting up and running GoFSH scripts, including links to a video tutorial. Note, the script MTRDK.txt by default only creates the MTRDK textures, if you want to create the base sidewalk mod also, you must open the script and remove the ' characters from the twelve lines under Build Sidewalk Mod. The ' tells GoFSH to ignore anything on the same line after it when reading the scripts. Essentially adding one to a line of the script disables that line, whereas removing them enables them again. Since these are also used to add helpful notes to the script, be careful not to accidentally enable those. But it provides a simple way to edit the script so you only build what you want. Need Assistance? Having problems and need some help? Or otherwise have feedback on my modding? Then please visit my threads at either SC4D (MGB's Mods and other stuff) or Simtropolis (MGB's Lot and Mod Shack) where I'll do my best to help.
  9. Tree-lined avenue Mod

    Great mod, I personally find the CP trees way too large, but no complaints with respect to your mod, even with huge trees this transforms the look of avenue lined areas.   ----   For all those with problems, trust me the modding is fine, almost certainly you have not installed it correctly.    This is a T21 mod and as such you can not have two mods installed that affect the same network tile (in this case the Avenue).   When you have two mods installed for the same network tile, the game will always display the T21 that loads last in your plugins folder. The reason for the crossover is that you can set T21 mods to only appear under certain conditions. Whatever you have that is conflicting probably doesn't appear with 0 Wealth, hence the trees are there until you zone, after which the conflicting mod shows instead.   To load after the NAM you must add the prefix "z____" (that's 4 underscores) to the name of a folder in the root of your plugins directory. The old multiple zzz's folder ordering no longer works due to changes made in recent times to the NAM. Once you've got it loading after the NAM, if you still get the conflict you need to find and remove the other mod (mods) which this supersedes or ensure this mod loads after it.
  10. Power Plant options

    I would be careful about removing the old ones with a new mod installed as it can bring about the Sliders Bug, much safer to Pause the game, delete the powerplants and Save - then after placing the new mod in your plugins add the new ones.
  11. I can confirm what Vortext is saying, these plopable waters have some downsides, for example try all 4 rotations of your map with JRJ's water and you'll see it's no longer in the same place (more noticeable if you decorate the shorelines first). For the Ppond kit, try using the lot-based water and just filling the edges with MMPs and more generally careful placement of each click with MMP's to avoid overlapping where possible helps to minimise these unwanted effects.
  12. First prop not showing

    Well it could be your mouse, but it could be useful to bear in mind that MMPs are sensitive little blighters, if you move the mouse when clicking (just a pixel or two can do it) that registers a second click sometimes. Try to be as steady as possible and you should be fine, there is likely nothing wrong with the MMP, in fact I know Giraffe's flora are all free of bugs, I use them a lot. If that's not where the problem lies, you need to check any software that can replicate mouse clicks - there are a number of features in Windows that could be adding the click for you, so check through your Mouse settings (Control Panel --> Mouse) and make sure everything is in order there, and also any special mouse software you may have installed. If the problem is intermittent this could be caused by undesirable accessibility options (named Ease of Access Centre on Win7), perhaps your mouse is set to double-click instead of click or something, in any case I'd check through the options again found in Control Pannel to make sure there is nothing out of place. For example I set CTRL+ALT in Windows to switch between a UK and DE keyboard and sometimes whilst zoning in SC4 I will accidentally change the keyboard language, lots of the accessibility options have similar keyboard shortcuts so it's a possible explanation of the behavior. Otherwise if software is not causing your problems, at least test another mouse to see if that gets rid of the problem before you buy a new one.
  13. Redesigning Player Vehicles

    Have a look through here.
  14. You can only have one Tree Controller installed at a time, otherwise your game will CTD when you enter. This mod is also available as a MMP (Mayor Mode Ploppable), so you could keep them as MMPs instead and have a tree controller to handle a larger range of trees this would be more ideal if you will use the Heblem flora less. Bear in mind you can't just change Tree Controllers, as this can cause many problems, you must remove all trees in a region placed with the tree controller before you can safely remove it from your plugins folder. The coral in the screenshot is almost certainly MMP coral, and there are probably quite a few useful mods from NBVC for tropical settings. You may want to check out SHK's mods and Finally here is a list of Flora MMPs you might find something your interested in amongst it all.
  15. Windows 7 does not not automatically create backups, unless you tell it too, although it would have advised you at some point in the activity center to set it up. Frankly I'm not sure I'd trust Windows Backup, but it's probably better than nothing if you want a set and forget solution. For SC4 copying the regions/plugins folders to an external hard drive regularly would be sufficient, although I would recommend any external drive that has important data on it should not be moved around more than necessary, they are more fragile than most people realise.
  16. Whilst I understand most people are trying to help you with this problem there is a simple fact here. Based on what you have said that you never installed any mods for your game (and you must know if you have or not) then changing other things will not help you. I've tested the save file on two machines, it's simply kaput and there is nothing you can do. If you start playing with all the settings of SC4 to try and fix a problem that doesn't exist, all you risk doing is mucking up something else (you can't fix something that isn't wrong). I understand a lot of work must have gone into a large tile that has been developed from nothing into a city of that size, but the fact is unless you have changed something to cause this problem, why would the settings suddenly be wrong? Also why are your other cities are still working just fine if the settings are incorrect for the main one? All I can do is state that things like this are the reason why every user should take backups seriously for any data they care about, but that's shutting the door and the horse is sadly gone.
  17. I don't want to sound negative, but taking a screen shot is a waste of time. If every time you try to open a city you get a CTD, that is all the information that is required to diagnose your problem. Now if you get some sort of error message, that information could be useful, but ultimately this is an issue that can occur, and without plugins to worry about the number of possible causes is very small indeed. As mentioned, if someone else could load the same region and verify that it also does not load, then the save file is corrupted and there is really nothing you can do about it. I don't know of anyone who can look at the data contained in a SC4 save and "fix" anything, but maybe there is such a wizard somewhere? Therefore the only possibility worth checking is to take your install of SC4 (and ideally your computer) out of the equation. There is a very slim chance that the files are not corrupted and there is something wrong with your install of SC4, or potentially a problem with your computer/OS. Once you can verify this one way or another you will know where you stand, however, in all likelihood the end of this path will lead to the conclusion you have to ditch this tile and move on, checking it on another machine is merely suggested by me to verify this diagnosis is correct before giving up on your save.
  18. Not usually, unless you have a backup somewhere of your SC4 Region you can recover? Just to be sure, if you like I could double-check (since you've no mods) your region files to see if they work here, just in case something is screwed up with your SC4 install, but that's very unlikely as you'd expect such a problem to affect every city you use. As for the patches/fixes, as mentioned they aren't going to fix your problem, but who knows what updates/fixes were in the EP1 patch, so to be on the safe side I'd make sure it was installed in future.
  19. If you are literally using 0 mods, then I'm afraid to say the only explanation for such problems is usually a corrupted city tile (assuming all other cities load fine and just this one is having problems). Do you have the NAM, at the very least you should install the Traffic Simulator which fixes what is a very broken game otherwise. Likewise a number of fixes for certain Maxis buildings, especially the I-HT fix is a must because without I-HT jobs you will never grow a successful region and this does not work even with the fully patched version of the game. Whilst we're here, I suppose it is also worth checking that you have patched your copy of SC4, is it a disk version or a downloaded version? If it's a disk version or the place you downloaded it from have not applied these patches to your game before distributing then you need to install the EP1 update at least. If you will ever use custom content in the future you should also install the Buildings as Props and the patch for night lighting too. Strictly speaking none of this will necessarily help with your problem directly, usually if a tile crashes on startup it's either due to use of so called HD mods when you are not using the Direct X Hardware Rendering option or conflicts (tree controllers, terrain controllers and missing props are the most likely culprits). However if you have an empty plugins folder, these can not be the problem, so corrupted save file is about all that is left, sorry.
  20. Underground rail station

    I was mucking around with them for a little while (also been looking for U-Rail stuff like this) every item in SC4 calls other items by the use of IIDs, but for simplicities sake think of them as telephone numbers. Because the RTMT bus stops were used as a template for these lots and these numbers were not changed, it was redirecting itself to the RTMT information when it shouldn't, actually the correct information is all there, but the game ignores it because the re-directs are in place to call up the information from RTMT (this also stops the lots from appearing at all unless RTMT is installed and it cannot reference the information). Other than this small problem, the modding is not too bad at all, so I'm going to make use of the Building Exemplar (template) myself and create a few U-Rail lots from it, keep an eye on the STEX in the near future .
  21. Underground rail station

    Have you tried searching all the way through the Misc. Transport menu? I've just downloaded it and they appear fine, although both lots are labeled as bus stops and one of them has a tree as its icon. UPDATE: Actually perhaps they are not there, they won't be unless you have RTMT installed because the Building exemplar is linked to those from RTMT, hence they show as bus stops incorrectly and other problems besides. Therefore you either need to install RTMT otherwise you could edit them to fix the problems if you are able to use the Reader. You might also want to look at the only U-Rail lot I knew of until reading your post, although it's a very big station compared to these simple 1x1 lots.
  22. Underground-Rail Station (NOT SUBWAY)

    Just downloaded these and although the description says you can use them without RTMT, you can not due to the way they have been modded. Essentially a number of exemplars from the original RTMT bus stop are incorrectly referenced in the building exemplars of these lots. Long and short, you can either install RTMT (they will show in Misc. Transit menu but are labeled bus stops) or if you can use the Reader they can be fixed by removing the references to RTMT.   To fix in Reader open each lot file in the reader and do the following for both:   - Open the building exemplar. - Edit the Parent Cohort putting a 0 in each box (should appear as 0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000 when you click OK). - Remove (right click, delete property) both the "User Visible Name Key" and "Item Description Key" - Save the file.   If you do the above fix, I'd also recommend setting the Transit Switch Entry Cost to .0069 and the Transit Switch Traffic Capacity to a minimum of 45,000 as per here.
  23. Bombardiere's London/ English Bats

    It's really hard not to get excited at the thought of any new UK content, like many others I must try to restrain the desire to make this into a wish-list! That said I'll take as many variations as you create, just thinking though that Bath Stone facades would really fit these buildings. Really great work with the PropSet, so glad to finally have an HD replacement for GC's phone/postboxes with night lights... I don't suppose you'd be willing to consider adding one of the newer (Silver/Glass) BT branded phone boxes too, I love the old red ones and remember them growing up, but honestly these days I see more around Europe than I do back home so I'd prefer to use the historical ones more sparingly! I really hope you can find enough motivation/time to continue your endeavors, it's about time Britain was being represented in SC4 .
  24. GLR Tram Avenue - Laying road intersections

    You'll find a Tram-in-avenue Icon in the Misc. Transport menu, after selecting it press TAB until the intersection you require appears and place. Often the straight pieces will plop over existing avenues but the intersection pieces usually do not, thus you need to delete the intersection before plopping the TIA pieces.
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