What causes Prop Pox (and how to avoid it)

[RippleJet]

We need a T21 expert in here...

Just in case dahemac (as posted elsewhere, see quote below) does indeed suffer from the pox, wouldn't those avenue median props be T21's?

I have all the dependencies from the LEX DVD. However I find that lots of lots are losing their props between sessions. For instance I plop the University or MAS71's walls and they look fine, with all their props. When I reopen the city later however the props have vanished and I am left with a kind of MT lot. This also happens with Avenue medians. When I place the Avenue, the median looks normal. Later even in the same gameing session, when I go back to them the median is blank. If I drag Avenue over the Avenue the median reappears. Any ideas?

[Andreas]

Yes, the avenue median props are placed via T21's. I don't know who came up with the term "network file" in the first place, but T21's are basically "network props", so to speak - it wouldn't surprise me if they are actually stored in the affected file as well.

[Nardo69]

First: hats off to bap for that marvellous work   from one of those unlucky ones who experienced the Prop Pox.

I wasn't able to check my city save files and plugin folders as I am 3000 km away from my (not very good working) pc but I think I have a pox-free backup of the infected city with which I will try to verify your theory ASAP in my case.

But I do clearly remember that all kind of tiles were affected by the pox - lots as well as Network pieces = T21. This is shown also in the pictures in snorelli's opening post here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=1201.0.

And yes, even though I haven't seen any screenshots I do believe to that dahemac is suffering the pox from what and how he describes it.

[sithlrd98]

So I guess my question wasn't as dumb as I thought! Now here is another question: Has anyone messed with Darkmatters Datgen version 0.7.9 for extracting DBPF files from save games? I can't get it to work properly as I am now on Vista , but it may make it easier to read those files.

Jayson

[Andreas]

I haven't used DatGen in ages, but as far as I know, I tried DatGen 0.7.9 once or twice, but found out that it even didn't work as well as the 0.6.0 release. IIRC, the 0.7.9 version was an attempt to make it Sims 2 compatible, but it never got very far. It couldn't hurt to give it another try, though.

[RippleJet]

DatGen shows the content of "unknown" files in exactly the same way as Reader, either as HEX code or as garbled text. The prop subfile is an unknown one, meaning its internal structure is unknown.

[bob56]

Some more food for thought...I'm not a modder, but heres an experience I had two weeks ago. I was making a lot..


I placed it in AN EMPTY, UNSETTLED SMALL BLOCK.  This is what showed up...

I exited the game, and immediately returned to LE... This is the same lot as earlier...

Also, I don't have pics, but in SC4 tool, the transits were also deleted in certain areas. I can get a pic if you like.

If I re-complete the lot, and put in game again, same thing happens, but with different tiles and props.

Is this prop pox?

Any help is sincerely appreciated..

[Kitsune]

I have one large city tile that measures 26 mb that has quite a bit of custom context is also a CAM tile that has never experienced prop pox. Also, terrian greatly effects a tiles size of well, a slight modification can result in a size change of quite a few kb's. This could explain why tiles can shrink in size from time to time.

[RippleJet]

I have one large city tile that measures 26 mb that has quite a bit of custom context

Can you check the size of the prop subfile (Type ID 2977aa47) within that SC4 file?
If it's above 16 MB, then you've obviously survived the jump from 6 to 16 without getting the pox.

Is this prop pox?

I honestly doubt that would have anything with the pox to do.
There are above all textures missing, and the prop pox has never affected any textures, only props.

[sithlrd98]

The reason I brought it up was , a while back I came across that version , which seems a little buggy , but gave better descriptions than the one from ST:
0.7.9

Datgen4 From ST


Jayson

[Kitsune]

Can you check the size of the prop subfile (Type ID 2977aa47) within that SC4 file?
If it's above 16 MB, then you've obviously survived the jump from 6 to 16 without getting the pox.

That type sits at 17.5mb currently.

[RippleJet]

Datgen4 From ST

In the second image, you have an item called unknown, just under the city name which is selected (blue).
Click that one, and you'll get all unknown files.

Among those you will also find the prop subfile, having a Type ID of 2977aa47.
When you open that file, you will see the same as you'd see in Reader.

0.7.9

If you open up that file called Network Props (2977aa47), listed on top on the right,
you'd also probably get the same content showing up.

That type sits at 17.5mb currently.

That would be good news for you!

[sithlrd98]

Yea, but you can export it out , but it saves as a .tnet , which I can't find info on.

Jayson


Duh...(.TNET)...Transportation Network.....
noticed it when I tried to extract the Network Props....(.NPROP)

Nevermind!

[Ennedi]

It would be also good to make a little summary of our knowledge in its present state, and repeat this operation from time to time if we will not solve the problem quickly. Otherwise we will have more and more repeating questions and our work will not go ahead.
Now we have two additional hypotheses (catty's and Wouanagaine's), we also identified the content of some savegame subfiles. Some other details were also discussed here.
I would help with pleasure, but the summary should be made by a person who knows English better than me (a single word can make a difference) and with better sc4 and computer knowledge than me.

Adam

[catty]

I did a search for some of the subfiles like 2977aa47 and come up with these links

http://old_wiki.modthesims2.com/SAVEGAMES?show_comments=1

http://www.sims2wiki.info/index.php?title=SAVEGAMES&redirect=no

How relevant it would be is another matter

[bap]

I did a search for some of the subfiles like 2977aa47 and come up with these links

http://old_wiki.modthesims2.com/SAVEGAMES?show_comments=1

http://www.sims2wiki.info/index.php?title=SAVEGAMES&redirect=no

How relevant it would be is another matter

catty, this is where the association of the 02977a47 subfile with "network props" came from.
If I remember well, wouanagaine suggested this file could host more than simply the network props (which we soon found it was true) and that one should look at the size of that subfile in Reader to see if it increases/shrinks when Prop Pox strikes in a city. This very piece of information is what allowed me to perform all those experiments. It may no longer be relevant, but it was important to help us reaching the stage we are now.

Cheers,
Bap

[iam015984]

Thnks Bap

[catty]

.... It may no longer be relevant, but it was important to help us reaching the stage we are now.....

It was more whether the links were relevant
but here's another link which may or may not be useful to know about.

Game Extractor has the ability to read and write archives from many different games including Simcity 4

http://www.watto.org/extract/games.html

[callagrafx]

Not really Catty, it simply reports back "unknown data" for most entries...unless I'm missing something.

[catty]

Not really Catty, it simply reports back "unknown data" for most entries...unless I'm missing something.

I had to wait till I got home from work before posting a picture, but this is what I see ...