twalsh102

@Dizzle28, strictly speaking, all CAMpatible means is that it will work with CAM (i.e. there is nothing in any exemplar that will break CAM). This is different than being optimized for CAM. Buildings/Lots that have been CAMifed (or are considered CAMelots), on the other hand, use modifiers to create stats that are optimized for use with CAM. Technically speaking, anything created with PIM-X (even if the filling degree is not modified) is considered optimized for CAM because PIM-X creates stats that are optimized for CAM. In direct answer to your question as to what needs to be done for any @mattb325 content, it depends on the tools he uses to create his content (I don't remember reading anything, anywhere, specific about this). If he used the Maxis LE to create his content, you'll want to re-do it using PIM-X. If he used PIM-X to create the content, and just downgraded the Growth Stage to be nothing greater than 8, well, you'll still need to use PIM-X to determine the correct Growth Stage. Doesn't look like he's visited here since 04/22, and hasn't been active at SC4D since 06/22 so probably can't ask him.

Actually, you don't want to "bring the Cap down", you want to raise it (provide Cap relief) in order to allow more growth. For residential areas, the only way to do this is by providing more amenities, i.e. parks and recreation. Different amenities provide different amounts of Cap relief based on wealth level. The Prima Official Strategy Guide for SimCity 4 Deluxe has a good chart that lays this out (on pages 71-72). If you don't have a copy, it is a free download at https://archive.org/details/SimCity_4_Rush_Hour_Prima_Official_eGuide. I would recommend the PDF version.

This is not unusual for some Anti-Virus software (especially Norton) that seem to mark any download that is not known to them (or seldom accessed in the grand scheme of things} as "known malicious site". You may need to add the site as an exception to Norton.

That's about it - ensuring the files/folders are in the plugins folder ! The two files in the a_core subfolder replace 100+ Maxis exemplars that impact game mechanics. Hopefully, you understand that although non-CAMified lots (Maxis, or Custom) will work with CAM, to get the most out of CAM, you need as many CAMified lots as possible to get the full effect of CAM. Note, that while IRM may have been made compatible with CAM, individual custom lots need to be modified to make them compatible with both IRM and CAM.

This MS document discusses MAX_PATH: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=registry If you Google search "Windows maximum path length", you will get numerous other hits from MS and other tech-related sites. This tool allows you to check the path length of any of your files/folders, either individually, or for entire file structures: https://github.com/deadlydog/PathLengthChecker I would recommend Running via the GUI.

@Pakistani890, Perhaps it will help to think of organization of your Plugins in this light: the Game DOES NOT CARE how your Plugins are organized. No matter what you come up with, the game will still run. If you look at the structure of Maxis base content, almost everything is contained in only five files (SimCity_1.dat thru SimCity_5.dat), i.e. NO organization of Maxis default plugins. Thus, you could place every single file in your Plugins folder at the root of the Plugins folder (i.e. NO organization/NO folders), and the game will still work. So the real question you should consider when you determine the organization of your Plugins folder is not it should be 'What is the easiest way for me to find things?' in order to determine whether or not you already have something in your Plugins folder. There is a scenario where how you have organized your Plugins folder that may impact whether individual plugins work properly. This has to do with Path Length. Windows has a maximum Path Length beyond which it cannot read files. If Windows cannot read a file, this can cause problems such as buildings not showing up in your game menu, props not appearing, or the appearance of brown boxes. If you aren't familiar with this, I can provide links to resources where you can learn about this issue, as well as a link to a tool that can help you determine if you have this issue. Having said all this, there are some custom Plugins that will only work properly if they are loaded last (see @Golan0's September 5 post). For every mod I have ever seen that requires that the game load it last in order to work properly, this is stated in the description and/or installation instructions. So there should be no guesswork if this is necessary or not.

@TheMurderousCricket, a couple of things to keep in mind: not all .SC4Lot files include LD sub-files; and depending on the age of the download, it may list dependencies that no longer exist.

The primary thing to remember when playing regionally is that a particular city tile an only directly "interact" with those other city tiles that are touching each of its four sides and are connected by neighbor connections using one of the transportation networks. Feeling organized is a very subjective phrase. What do you mean be this? By geography, I'm assuming you're actually talking about topography (i.e. terrain). I'm not sure how you would make each city tile unique enough to recognize solely by the terrain of the tile. Remember that even the largest city tile is only 4km by 4 km. Not sure where you live, but try going on a walk-about where you live and try to discern what makes the 4km square where you live unique (terrain-wise) from any adjacent 1, 2, or 4 km square of land. Also keep in mind that each city tile in SC4 must match up terrain-wise with each of its neighbors (i.e. the city edges must match). Try playing in windowed mode (vs. full-screen). Then you can minimize the game and access any other files (such as the screen shot of your region map) you have on your computer. All demand is shared regionally between connected cities. This means that Sims can commute to other connected cities if they can't find jobs in their own. No type of transportation crosses a city boundary; it simply disappears. Pollution does not cross city boundaries. Taxes apply only to each city. When setting up neighbor connections / road networks, one must be careful. Do a search on "eternal commuter" to research this phenomenon. Coverage from schools, hospitals, and fire / police stations only extend to a city's boundary. Simple answer, No. A suggestion: If you don't already have it, I would recommend downloading a copy of the Prima Strategy Guide for SimCity 4 Deluxe available (for FREE) at https://archive.org/details/SimCity_4_Rush_Hour_Prima_Official_eGuide

The best way to proceed really depends on what your goal is for whatever you're doing. If your goal is just to learn the basic process of modding, that would work. Might I make a suggestion? If you're just starting to learn modding, I would suggest using PIM-X (available over at SC4D), as it is a much more user-friendly substitute for the Maxis LE. Make sure you also download the User's Guide as it is not included in the PIM-X download

I'm not sure what the cause is, but this has long been a well-known phenomenon having to do with using the Maxis LE.

@Pakistani890, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to organizing your Plugins folder. The primary purpose for organizing your Plugins folder is to make it easy for you to find things, and help verify you're not downloading duplicates. Since no two people think exactly alike, it's likely that no two people will organize their Plugins exactly alike either. With very few exceptions, the game will work no matter how your Plugins folder is organized

The second Building Exemplar (Index #176). You highlighted the Lot Exemplar.

The problem is that this is an invalid Building Exemplar. The second Building Exemplar shown in your second post is the one you should have modified. Does the original file (LM8x5_aTx_NationalArtCenter.dat) still contain any Building Exemplar? If so, if the Instance ID for the existing Building Exemplar in that file is 0x570C5066, delete it. If the Instance ID is 0x770C542D, that is the Exemplar to which you need to make your modifications. Since it sounds like you also made changes to your Lot Exemplar, if neither Building Exemplar still exists in the original file (LM8x5_aTx_NationalArtCenter.dat), or if the Building Exemplar Instance ID is 0x570C5066, your best bet would be the following: 1. Unzip the file again (to someplace other than where the current one exists), 2. Open your current version of that file in Reader. 3. Also open the version you just unzipped in Reader. 4. Copy the Building Exemplar with the Instance ID of 0x770C542D from the newly unzipped version, and past it into original version. Remake the few changes you made to the invalid Building Exemplar. When confronted with multiple Building Exemplars with any package (one of which is always invalid), the best way to determine which is valid is to open it in Reader, and check for an Item Icon value other than zero. It should have a value that matches the Instance ID of the included PNG subfile that represents the Item Icon. Hopefully, I didn't confuse the heck out of you.

The basic ingredients are a Lot Exemplar, a Building Exemplar and a Model. As you probably know, the Model can be yours or someone else's. If it is a Maxis Model, it doesn't need to be listed as a dependency. For a Growable LOT, usually there are separate for the Lot Exemplar (xxx.SC4Lot), a Building Exemplar (xxx.SC4Desc) (Note that Prop Exemplars are also .SC4Desc files), and a model (.SC4Model). For a Ploppable LOT, the Lot and Building Exemplars are usually included in an .SC4Lot file. Sometimes, content creators will wrap everything needed for a Lot into a .Dat file. LE doesn't usually do that. All non-texture game files are included in SimCity_1.dat. The fact that you ended up with a .Dat file implies that you edited SimCity_1.dat directly, and then saved it to a different name. If this is the case, you basically created troubleshooting hell, since it contains almost 60.5K subfiles. If you are going to modify anything to do with an existing Maxis Lot or Building, the Best Practice is to extract (copy) these Exemplars to a new file or files, and then modify the copies. If all you did was modify a Lot Exemplar, what did you generate "new groups and instances" for?

Could you ZIP up the SC4Lot and SC4Desc files you ended up with, and post the .zip here so we can take at look at it to see if there is anything obviously wrong with what your did?

@ulisse beat me to the punch on this one. Not sure how you got the CD version to even run on Windows 10. The CD version required that the CD be in your CD player to run, and Microsoft removed the DRM Security drivers (SafeDisk and SecurROM) required for this to happen with the Windows 10 release. This MAY be the reason you can't upgrade. Use of any software that allows one to run such games without the CD being in the tray will probably also prevent the game from being upgraded. Please note that it has been a long-standing policy of this website that any such installations of SC4 not be provided any support. Your best, most trouble-free bet would be to do as @Flann and @ulisse suggest and watch GOG for SC4 to go on sale (it isn't currently) and purchase a digital DRM-free copy. If you do so, get the stand-alone version, not the version that requires GOG Galaxy. Any digital version of SC4 (other than Origin) comes already fully upgraded.

1. There are two different Building Exemplars included in this DAT, only one of which is valid. The Building Exemplar with the IID of 7770C542D is the valid one. the other can be safely deleted from the DAT, although there is no harm in leaving it. 2. Unless there is another Exemplar with this IID that exists elsewhere in your Plugins and is loading after this particular DAT, your first sentence is not the issue. 3. Which version of Reader are you using? 4. Is the version of the Building Exemplar shown the before or after modding version? What were you trying to mod in the Building Exemplar, and what isn't taking effect? 5. Since it sounds like you deleted the valid Building Exemplar, you now need to replace it. Did it not remove the file? Or was the invalid Exemplar the one that you deleted?

The following applies to ANY download where you may experience the same problem: The short answer is unfortunately yes. The unfortunate truth is the larger the list of dependencies, the easier it is to miss something when downloading. Another truth with large packages like this is that it can be hard sometimes for the content creator to keep track of everything he may have used in creating the package, and as @rsc204 mentions there may end up being something missing in the list. So it's important to verify that you not only downloaded ALL the listed dependencies, but also that you also actually unzipped and placed all of them into your Plugins folder. There is a tool (SC4Datanode by @rivit) that can help you to determine if you're missing something (i.e a model, a texture. a prop) for a specific lot, and will give you the IID for what is missing, but it has no way of telling you exactly where it comes from, because there is no master database that contains everything that was ever created, especially models. As mentioned previously, ANY missing model will generate a brown box. The model could be for a building, a large prop such as a crane, or something as simple as the model for a trash can prop. A single prop pack could contain the models AND description files for thousands of individual props. Or it may contain prop descriptions for thousands of props that reference models created by someone else. It is a long standing rule within the SC4 community that someone cannot include a MODEL created by someone else within a download they post, to prevent that someone from claiming someone else's work as their own. In that case, wherever those models exist would need to be listed as a different dependency. Just to throw another possible complication into the works: There is a maximum path length that Windows can read. The path for a file starts at the drive letter (i.e. C:) all the intervening letters, number. special characters and blank spaces, all the way to the last letter of the file (i.e. .sc4model or .dat) to include every intervening folder name. If the path exceeds that maximum length, Windows will not be able to read that file, even though it IS in fact in your Plugins folder. If you happen to be using the MAC version of SC4 (as opposed to a Windows Virtual Machine on a MAC), this doesn't apply. Just in case you weren't aware of this, you only need a single copy of ANY dependency in your Plugins, regardless of whether bunches of other downloads need the same dependency.

The cause of brown boxes is ALWAYS the same: missing models. Having said the cause is either you don't have a required dependency in your Plugins folder, or it is so deeply buried in nested subfolders that the path exceeds Windows Maximum Path Length with the consequence that Windows cannot read the file. To repeat, brown boxes are ONLY caused by a missing dependency, specifically a required model. Verifying that actually have ALL required dependencies in your Plugins folder is the necessary first step to finding the resolution to this. It would also help if you verify you have the latest available versions of all the dependencies. Yes, i realize that this will be a bit of a pain in the rear, but it's the ONLY way to fix brown boxes. A possibility is that the content creator did not list all required dependencies. But given that this download has been around since 2008, there aren't a plethora of people complaining about brown boxes, and there seems to be about billion dependencies listed (obviously an exaggeration), I suspect you somehow missed one or more of those dependencies.

I don't think the issue is people ignoring your question, but rather not being sure how to answer it if they haven't had the same experiences you have, or tried to do what you are trying to do, as there are several "moving" pieces at work here. I'm in that same boat, but will give it a try. Caveat: I use PIM-X rather than the Maxis LE, so my comments mostly relate to using PIM-X. I agree with @ulisse that PIM-X would be the better tool to use for some of this. You will also need to use Reader. Question a) I don't see this as being possible with either the Maxis LE or with PIM-X for several reasons: 1 - The location of each item related to a lot (textures, building model, props, etc.) is determined by a set of coordinates listed as a seperate property in the Lot Exemplar. The coordinates used are based on the size of the lot. I don't have a firm understanding of exactly how coordinates are determined, but know that they start in the upper left hand corner of the lot. 2 - If you have an existing lot, every single point on the lot has something (or several somethings) on it. What would be deleted if you downsize the lot, and how would this affect all the properties governing locations on the lot? How would any LE be able to determine this? 3 - IN PIM-X, lot size (property of the Lot Exemplar) is not an editable property. 4 - It is possible to edit the Lot Exemplar using Reader, but you would still need to overcome 1 and 2 above. 5 - How many of the existing textures and props do you plan on keeping? Frankly, if the majority of the lot is going to be changed, you might be better off just starting from scratch. Question b) 1 - Cannot answer the why. It shows up with no problem in PIM-X. 2 - As a practical exercise using PIM-X, I cannot find a way to delete an existing building and replace it with another. The only way I can think of to do so would be to (using Reader) find the Property in the Lot Exemplar that relates to the Building location and replace the IID of the existing Building and replace it with the IID of the its replacement. However, I can see this only working if the footprint of the new building fits within the footprint of the old building. 3 - You will end up with a Building Exemplar for a Plopped building with a Lot Exemplar for a Growable lot. Not sure how or even if this would work. Question c) Note that transit-related properties are a function of the Building Exemplar, and not the Lot Exemplar. PIM-X cannot create a transit-enabled Building/Lot. You would need to use Reader to mod any Building Exemplar to include the necessary transit-enabled properties. I have never run across a transit-enabled, growable lot. That's not to say they don't exist, I've just never run across one. Not sure why you would want this to be a growable lot, but obviously, to each their own. From a realism standpoint (sorry, I'm big on realism), you would not see more than one cement plant (which manufactures portland cement that is sold to Concrete Contractors for use in creating concrete) in an area, almost always near the source of primary raw materials (primarily limestone). There are only about one hundred cement plants in the entire US, and exist in only 34 states or territories. There are more than five hundred Ready-mix concrete companies in the US (and its territories), many with multiple locations. Question d) Only one Building Exemplar can be associated with each Lot Exemplar. However, you can make it appear that here are multiple buildings on a lot, but everything other than the primary building would have to be a prop. Note that this is essentially how the Gusslov Lot was created. The "Building" consists of two different models. The larger part of the building is one model, which is referenced in the Building Exemplar. The rest of the building is a prop that references the second model in a Prop Exemplar.

Gotcha, I think. There is no way to make any growable lot show up in any menu, unless you turn it into a ploppable. If known ploppables aren't showing in the menu, there are several possible causes. 1. It's possible that a L/B is there, but not necessarily in the menu you expect it to be. CC creators can specify what menu they wish their creation to show up in. This is specified in the OccupantGroups property of the Building Exemplar. 2. There also needs to be a Item Icon property (this doesn't exist in the Building Exemplar of a growable). The value for this property needs to be the IID of the png subfile that represents to icon seen in the menu (this property also doesn't exist in the Building Exemplar of a growable). If the png subfile has been somehow corrupted, then you will have a glitched menu where it should show up. This can be recognized by having an empty space somewhere in the menu where the icon would normally show. 3. Depending on how you organize your Plugins folder, it's possible that the Lot Exemplar (which also usually includes the Building Exemplar) cannot be read because the path to its location exceeds the maximum path length for Windows (260 characters). For most Windows users, the usable Path Length from the root of the Plugins folder is 208 characters minus the length of their user name. Depending on how many levels of nested folders and subfolders you've set up, it wouldn't be difficult to exceed the maximum path length. The issue with Maximum Path Length is that if any file exceeds this limit, it can't be read by Windows. It it can't be read by Windows, it can't be read by SC4. 4. A tool you can use to determine if there is anything in your Plugins that exceed the limit is SC4 DataNode by @rivit. This isn't what it's designed for, but it will throw an error and abort a scan if it finds a file that exceeds the maximum length.The downside of using DataNode (since it aborts the scan if it finds anything) is that if you have more than one file that exceeds the limit, you have to find and deal with these files one at a time. A lot of info, I know! Hopefully I didn't confuse the heck out of anyone!

@SIM-ple Jack For anybody that may not be aware of this: All Building and Lot Exemplars will appear in the appropriate list for the Building and LotPlop "cheats", regardless of whether they are ploppable, or growable. But only ploppable lots with their associated building will appear in one of the game's menus. So the big question is: is this an issue of wanting growable lots/buildings to show up in a menu, or an issue of known ploppable buildings/lots not showing up in a menu as they should? Since the necessary properties and the values for these properties can vary greatly between growable and ploppable for both the Lot, and especially the Building Exemplars, there is no one answer to your question. If the issue is the former, you would need to generate new Lot AND Building Exemplars, specific to ploppable lots/buildings, to properly show up in one of the menus (not as simple as just tweaking files). If this is the case, I agree with @CorinaMarie that PIM-X would be the best tool to use. The specific process can follow if necessary. If the issue is the latter, is it possible what you are looking for IS in one of the menus, just not where you expect it to be (since the creator of the Building Exemplar determines which menu the Building shows up in, whether it is logical or not)?

@hi_density, The simple answer here is that the two controllers will not work together. The same answer would apply to airport controllers as well. The why is a bit more complicated. The primary purpose of such controllers is to specify what pieces-parts (listed by IID) would be considered as part of the functional seaport. The original Maxis Seaport controller contained only one Maxis Seaport. You could plop pieces-parts from other content creators, but they would only be eye-candy and not functional. I have not actually looked at either the PEG or BSC controller, but they essentially work in the same way. So when BSC created their Seaport controller, they added the IIDs of the pieces-parts that the BSC team had developed and probably added the IID of the lone Maxis seaport to create their new Seaport controller. PEG likely did the exact same thing, i.e. they created a new Seaport controller containing the IIDs of all the pieces-parts created by PEG and maybe added the IID of the lone Maxis piece, but likely didn't add the IIDs of the BSC created parts. The end result would be that one of the controllers would override the other, depending on your folder structure. Whichever controller was loaded last would be the one the game uses. You could uses pieces parts from the other set, but they just wouldn't be considered functional. There is a way to make the pieces-parts from both sets be functional, but that may not be simple depending on your level of knowledge on the structure of a Seaport controller, and on the tool that you would need to use, i.e. Reader by @ilive. Essentially, a new Seaport controller would need to be created that combines the IIDs listed in bother the BSC and PEG controllers. Then you can get rid of the other two controllers and just use the single new one. It really depends on what your intent is. If you want all the pieces-parts to be functional, you would have to create a new, combined controller. If you were happy using functional parts from one set, with eye-candy parts from the other set, you merely pick which controller you want to use, and take the other controller out of your Plugins folder. Now, one bit of potential unpleasantness that you may potentially run into: if you use the second option mentioned above, once you have built a Seaport using one controller, you cannot simply change controllers should you want to. This would most likely lead to a game crash at start up. To do that correctly, you would likely need to actually remove all the lots listed in the current controller before changing controllers. You may have to remove all lots in order for the former eye-candy lots to be properly recognized as now being functional.

All utility buildings have a life expectancy. That life expectancy is coded into the Building Exemplar. It is based on having full funding and being run at 100% capacity. The level of funding and the level of usage can affect the configured Life Expectancy. As these buildings age, their efficiency suffers The Maxis Water Pump has a Life Expectancy of 75 years. Custom utility buildings may or may not have the same Life Expectancy as Maxis utility buildings of the same type. You can check out Chapter17: Utilities in the Prima Official Strategy Guide for SC4 to see the Life Expectancy for all Maxis Utility Buildings.

I understand what you're asking for, but the simulation is just not set up to do anything like that. ALL automata (trains, planes, trucks, boats, autos) is just a representation of what is actually going on behind the scenes. When any automata crosses the boundary between cities, it doesn't actually appear in the other city to continue to a specific destination. While automata does appear at the city edge when one plays that other city, it doesn't come from any specific place, or go to any specific place. Once any automata leaves from a city, it is considered to have reached its destination. When a freight truck is visually generated, it may or may not visually cross over a neighbor connection. But the freight trip will have been considered to be complete, unless traffic congestion prevents the freight trip from being completed in the maximum allowable time. Freight trucks are visually generated at periodic intervals. But the number of freight trucks visually generated may or may not be representative of the actual number of freight trips. If you let trash build up to the point where you can visually see it because of a lack of necessary trash disposal capability, once you acquire sufficient capability the (visual) trash will start to disappear. But you may or may not see any trash trucks appear around where the trash is disappearing from. I think I know of which mod you are talking about. Everything there is just a visual. The transfer point is likely the actual trash disposal point. Once trash reaches that transfer point, it is considered disposed of. The trash is not actually being loaded on a barge or ship, and the ship is not really taking any trash anyplace. So why is this? If you are playing regionally, there is no way to sync clocks between cities. You can only play one city at a time. Once you stop playing a city, its clock stops. So when you stop playing one city and start playing another the clocks may be out of sync by one year, or ten, or a hundred. Because of this, there is no way for the simulation to track the movement of any automata that appears to cross city boundaries.