jplumbley

@Gmav What program are you using for your image editing? I have been using Photoshop in my work on the SAM (Street Addon Mod) Project. I have had to fix up in the range of 300 textures so far and I have gained some help from others as of late. What I am doing is taking existing texture sets that are incomplete and making them a full set with all wealth levels and full Street sets. How I do this is: (This method works best with programs that use layers) 1. Extract the textures for the set into PNG format. (Both iLive Reader and FSHman required) iLives Reader A. Open the NAM GLR DAT file... I forgot the name offhand. B. Look for all of the FSH files that the IID ends with 4. Right click, Copy Files. C. Click on the Blank.dat. Right click, Paste Files. D. Save the Blank.dat. E. File -> Extract All Files into a folder where all the files can be accessed easily by you. FSHman A. Open one of the FSH files you extracted. B. In the Browse TAB click on the #1 C. File -> Save As... Following these steps should skip whatever problem you were having with the ALPHA layer. 2. Open the PNG texture in Photoshop. 3. Erase the Base from the texture. In the case of the GLR, it will mean leaving only the rails and any road crossing the rails (erasing the sidewalk). 4. Save the texture with only the GLR and any road crossings as a Photoshop file. The texture must have a transparent or at very minimum a solid base color. 5. Open a the Base texture you would like. In your case the Sandstone texture. 6. Now go back to the GLR texture you just saved and select all and copy. 7. Back to the Base texture. Paste on a new layer the GLR texture. If you have a solid base color (normally white or black) you will have to select these colors and erase them for the base to show through. 8. Save this new texture as a PNG. Congrats, you may now send this texture to me when you have the set completed. I have found that this method takes me about 5 mins to extract a set of textures once you get the hang of it. And then each texture individually editing them in overlays takes about 10 mins if I am rushing to get it done. But, time is not of the essence on a project like this as it will take some time before I am ready to do the modding work on it. SAM is taking up most of my time and it is going quite well. Please take a look at the link in my signature to see the latest on what I have developed. It is very applicable to what you are asking to do here.

Originally posted by: haljackey EDIT: The Modular Interchange System (MIS) for the RHW network is in the works, and they could use some help. Of course, you can use this guide to make your own interchange for the ground/elevated highway.quote> You can also use this tutorial to make interchanges for ALL networks including RHW. But, the reading is desnse, very dense. I would recommend that you know a little bit about transit modding beforehand. But beginners are welcomed. Making an interchange is not something on person can do easily, it is something that 3 or 4 people should do together in a team with different expertise.

@Gmavingnier The best thing for you to do is download FSHman from the Modds/Downloads section. Extract all of the GLR textures one by one (only the 128x128 pixel ones) and edit them in Photoshop, Paintshop Pro or whatever you have. Extract them as PNGs and then when you are done send them to me as PNGs.

Yes. Export the map using SC4TF to an 8-bit PNG. If you are using a map that is in 16-bit SC4M data from the STEX or LEX, you may lose some quality but that is the price of doing business. Then open your region in Photoshop and then rotate the Canvas. Preferably stay within the 90, 180, 270 rotations that way you wont end up skewing the map or have missing corners.

This is a dead thread. Please do not revive old threads that went nowhere. The projects that were started before this thread are still in the process of being created. And again Bus and HOV lanes are physically impossible to create in game with the modding we are given.

If the textures get made, I can get them to work in-game.

Good news gmavingnier! You only have to do the Zoom 5 textures (128x128 px). When you have them created I will need PNG format of the 128x128 textures. Then I can organize them into a DAT file and make them work in game. Good luck and dont give up. I have been doing alot of overlaying of textures in my work, but I dont have time between school and my other projects to help you create these textures. All I can do is give you pointers here and there from my very little experience.

What I mean is actually doing the GLR textures, not just extracting the base texture. I have enough on my plate right now between school and SAM that I cannot make new textures sets tright now. Also, I dont make textures from scratch I only use existing ones to make things better.

@Insane Child I never said it was a stupid site. But its just one of millions of sites, by this logic every website in the world deserves a Wiki. SC4 is an old game. A great game. If you think logically you will realize it has lived extremely longer than it should have in the gaming world. ST is a good site, but it hasnt change the face of the internet. It hasnt changed the face of the world we look at. It has been a host for just another game with a few die hard fans left. Be honest, this site doesnt have 180,000 members active. And probably about half of those registered nicknames are probably dupilcate accounts. I am not denying the fact that ST is the largest SC4 Website and that is not a good site. I am saying it is a dime a dozen in the scope of the world. Yes you can be passionate about it but the voice of maybe 10,000 SC4 die hard fans that still frequent this site is nothing compared to 6 billion in the world. ST was and is a great place for SC4. But SC4 is a very insignificant part of the world. So, what is the big deal for having a Wiki on ST? A new Sim City is slated to come out. Only the die hard fans will stay with SC4, I will be one of them. But the world moves on from the past and Wikis on fansites are just silly. No matter what fansite it is, unless it has been the first to use new technologies (something I am sure this site has never done). This is a fansite. Fansite = insignificant except to the few people that use it.

Ummm? What is the reason for having a Wiki on ST? I just dont see what the big deal here is. The people that care about SimCity 4 are here, there are links from other SimCity 4 site to here and people can find it quite easily if they follow the links. Not to mention the link from the Offical SimCity website from EA. Wiki is an encyclepedia. A place where useful information should be posted. Seriously, what useful information can be given to an encyclepedia from ST or any other fansite for that matter? The only websites I can really see as useful and deserving of a Wiki are sites that have changed the face of the internet and revolutionized the internet. This is just another fansite and forum out of millions. Im not trying to start a flaming war... Im just confused as to what the big fuss is over.

If you 2 are asking when the SAM project will be released. A BETA version will be released when all partts have been brought together. No official date will be released but I have a timeframe in mind, again I will not devulge this information. You will have to keep up with the project at the link provided in my signature. Only a full release will be released on STEX or the Modds/Downloads Section, this way a BETA can be controlled. First, initial release may only be in the Project Thread. I will not reply here again because this is a dead project and not the place that SAM is being worked on.

If anyone gives me a set of textures in PNG format I will consider them for alternate draggble texture sets. I cannot tell you how to make textures because I am not a texture creator. If you learn and make a texture set for the GLR, then I can make it draggable as an alternate.

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 ???.... whats a custom road? like, you have a curved building and you want a curved road? You would model it in gmax then. Or are you trying to figure how to add a Road to your lot that can be transit enabled? to do that you will need the "Sc4tool". Open it up, select "transit enable lots" and its pretty self-explanatory from there.quote> NO, dont ever do this. TE lots are not intended to be used for networks. TE lots are intended for Stations (Bus Stops, Subway Station, etc.) Never, I mean, NEVER use a TE lot to make an alternate intersection, straight piece, etc for a netowrk. _________________________________________________________________________ OK... there are 2 REAL ways of creating alternate textures for a network. The first is to find all the textures for a network in the Simcity_3.dat. Write down the IIDs of these textures and then make your textures have the same IID in a separate DAT file. These textures will override the ones in the Simcity_3.dat. The second way is to use the puzzle drag method. In my opinion is a better way to make this work. Instead of overriding the textures, you will be able to have the original network textures exist with your new textures. If you would like to do it this way, I would suggest you make your textures, and submit them to me following the link in my signature (Street Addon Mod). I am in the middle of adapting my work for other networks including roads. The reason I ask for you to submit them to me is so I can fit them into the New Draggable Textures IID structure and copy the RULs needed from one network to the next. This IID

Of course it is possible. In fact you can make is as a second GLR alternate draggable system. You can have upto 16 different draggable GLR textures if you had them. The problem is we need someone to make the textures and then we can mod the textures to be draggable.

I have already answered that question. And no it is not possible for the reason I posted already in this thread. SC4 uses an x,y coordinate system. X,Y grids are square, meaning no strange shapes. You cannot have 2 grids overlaying each other using the same tiles. What you have is what you get.

Originally posted by: beebs Originally posted by: jplumbley Originally posted by: nathanscottdaniels How do I stop the region from looking like crap when I load it in SC4? The color's don't change to the SC4 colors and textures until I open and save every one of my 30 cities which can take up to 45 minutes!quote> Why do you think rendering a map with the vanilla way took so long? SC4 would take your JPEG and open and save every city while applying each portion of the JPEG to the terrain. There is no "quick fix" for this, but atleast now you dont have to wait those countless hours waiting for a map to render. You can now do it in steps, be thankful you are not a mapper creating the Region Overview of a map of 144 large city tile.quote> Not sure if you're on the team with Wouanagaine making SC4 Terraformer, but I was wondering if it were possible to have an option to go through that process. I go and open/save each city immediately after anyways, and it would be handy if it were all done automatically. quote> Sure you can do it already. Its called Export to a JPEG and then enter SC4 and do it the old way. Of course this means your map will lose accuracy by going from 16-bit to 8-bit. And you will have to wait for the region to open and save every tile. Since Wouanagaine is not working on SC4TF anymore and it is more or less "complete" this will not become a function. In fact, this is probably not even possible since SC4TF would have to be able to start SC4 without you clicking the SC4 startup icon. One of the reasons SC4TF was created was so that you wouldnt have to wait for the game to open and save every city tile. It was made to make it possible to play the game without rendering the whole map at once and do it in steps. What SC4TF does is create the Save Game files. It only writes the generic terrain height information that SC4 can read. SC4TF also saves a JPG of the city tile, since it can only take a picture of this tile with SC4TF colors thats what shows up in SC4. If this JPG was not made by SC4TF the region would look like a flat "New Region". This is because SC4 has not opened and actually rendered the data yet. So, to give the illusion that SC4TF has rendered the map these JPGs are there. They are removed when you open and save the city because they are replaced with what SC4 has made. A possibility that may tickle your fancy is reading the Readme. There is a way to change the colors that are displayed by SC4TF. I dont remember the steps offhand but I know the Readme has it. Hopefully this has been enlightening and explains how SC4TF works behind the scenes a little bit. But I wouldnt expect any new things coming to life in SC4TF for a long time. Wouanagaine has started a new job and is on hiatus. Aswell he is working on a new tool for the BSC. It is called the X-Tool (a revolutionary tool bigger and better than SC4TF was to mapping) and is being designed to replace a few existing tools and help out with the creation of CAMeLots. But there is no date for release due to the fact he is on hiatus due to RLS and his new job.

Originally posted by: nathanscottdaniels How do I stop the region from looking like crap when I load it in SC4? The color's don't change to the SC4 colors and textures until I open and save every one of my 30 cities which can take up to 45 minutes!quote> Why do you think rendering a map with the vanilla way took so long? SC4 would take your JPEG and open and save every city while applying each portion of the JPEG to the terrain. There is no "quick fix" for this, but atleast now you dont have to wait those countless hours waiting for a map to render. You can now do it in steps, be thankful you are not a mapper creating the Region Overview of a map of 144 large city tile.

This specific mod has not been added to the SAM (Street Addon Mod). There is a link in my Sig to the SAM project. But a new set of Asphalt Textures made by Hableurg will be part of the SAM.

@Warrior The 3 sizes 256, 512 and 1024 squares per city tile in width are controlled by the EXE. These are logical choices because Binary and Hex math have these numbers in common for threshold numbers. Everyone knows 256 = 11111111 in Binary and FF in HEX. If we had access to the EXE then maybe we could change these values to include 2048 or 4096, but imagine playing on a city with 16 Large City tiles, the lag would be horrendous since it already gets laggy in one large city tile. So, to be honest right now this will never happen because its in the EXE but it wouldnt be too practicle either to increase the large city tile because each new increment will increase the tile size by 4x. What we have is what we get.

Not possible. A square is a real shape. MAXIS will probably never differ from the Square city tiles, because it uses a x,y coordinate location system for the tiles and what is in them.

@Warrior - POS may be right. I just never thought of that. If they are T21s then what you will have to do if find the T21 for the tile and remove it. There will be one T21 per model. And Swamper always uses the IID of the network piece he is adding the T21 he is making the T21 for.

@those looking for Real Life cities or regions Unfortunately, RLS has hit the few mappers on our team that can do these kinds of maps. I am not one of these people, I do handterraforming and I have not mapped in months. @Dadyrghluv If you would like a map in the Rocky Mountains, there have been a few by us. I think Mount Robson was one and another was Invermere Valley.

The moral of the story is do what you want. It is not possible to make beautiful cities that have jobs in every city tile and prevent sims from travelling through to another city when better jobs are closer to home. Unless you want to break your city up into sectors where only specific city tiles are where jobs can be. In my opinion sectored cities are not very good looking, but I am sure someone will come out and show a beautiful suburb and then a beautiful CBD or a beautiful industrial port. But they wont show you the city lines or show a city border where both sides have been melded together in photoshop showing how much of a continuous flow their cites can have between city tiles. But thats just my opinion. Moral = Play the game how you see fit. The sims will do what they want with the limited simulator they have.