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CoriBoom MySims.dat - The Techy, Hexy Details
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Technical aspects of MySimtropolis Immortalized Members. As some of you will be aware from our released mod on the STEX, in SC4's MySims Mode it's possible to add custom MySims to be available for selection and use in the game. Adding new ones involves a bit of hex editing and understanding of the data file structure. The following guide explains the technical details under the hood on how to achieve this yourself. (Perhaps you'd like to include real pics of friends and family for personal use in your own game only.) Background info from the Sign Up thread: Note: For this you need to use your favorite Hex Code Editor. I use the HxD Hex Editor. (The HxD pictured in this guide is the 1.7.7.0 version from 2009 and running on my stand alone XP comp.) Also Note: None of this is necessary if you download our mod. These details are provided for those who want to add their own MySims. The MySims.dat file structure is relatively simple. It goes like this: [4 Byte File Header] [Variable length data for MySim # 1] [Variable length data for MySim # 2] [Variable length data for MySim # 3] [Etc.] The first thing to do is create a MySims.dat file in your Documents folder under SimCity 4 in a folder called MySim. I do that by right clicking in the file area and selecting to create a new Text Document. It must be named MySims.dat exactly. It will complain how changing the extension from .txt will cause an apocalypse, but just ignore that. Excuse the other folder clutter in this pic from XP: Now open that file with your Hex Editor: On the Hex Code side, type in the file header of AA E4 32 4A. (I have no idea what this part means, but I'm sure it tells the game what type of file it is.) The next byte is the length of the in game MySim name which will follow in the next bytes. In my case I use Cori as my game name so that's a length of 4. Then I click over in the Text side and type my name. Jump back to the Hex side and the next 3 bytes are for: Code for Gender Code for Zodiac sign Length of the BMP file name which will follow Jump back to the text side and type the name of the BMP file name which is the image to use in the game. Note that the .bmp extension is assumed and not included: To add more MySims, repeat the above using the data for the next member: And to wrap it up, save the MySims.dat file and copy in the .bmp image files to the MySim folder: Be sure to read about the details of the BMP image file in the first spoiler at the beginning of this post. Providing you are using the MySimtropolis_Rulez.dat file included in the STEX download, it will look like this in the game: (If you chose not to use the MySimtropolis_Rulez.dat overhaul file, you'd see a page of default MySims and the new peeps would start on the second page of the selection panel.) Here's a full recap of the MySims.dat file structure: File Header (4 bytes) (Variable length data for MySim # 1) MySim name length value (1 byte) MySim name text string (variable # of bytes) Code for Gender (1 byte) Code for Zodiac sign (1 byte) MySim bitmap file name length value (1 byte) MySim bitmap file name (variable # of bytes) (Variable length data for MySim # 2) MySim name length value (1 byte) MySim name text string (variable # of bytes) Code for Gender (1 byte) Code for Zodiac sign (1 byte) MySim bitmap file name length value (1 byte) MySim bitmap file name (variable # of bytes) (Variable length data for MySim # 3) MySim name length value (1 byte) MySim name text string (variable # of bytes) Code for Gender (1 byte) Code for Zodiac sign (1 byte) MySim bitmap file name length value (1 byte) MySim bitmap file name (variable # of bytes) (Etc.) Also, @Cyclone Boom has created a super sexy spreadsheet thinger that automates the creation of the hex code which can then be copied and pasted into the HxD Hex Editor. His gizmo creates the complete code format as explained above and so the same technique applies with one block for each MySim. Full details on that in his post below.- 36 Replies
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