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Effects

Started by Lowkee33, May 08, 2012, 04:09:43 PM

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Lowkee33

#20
Quote from: NCGAIO on May 09, 2012, 07:50:21 PM
Section #6

&apls  Nice knowledge there NCGAIO.  Certainly getting into the mechanics of the game with that one.

By the way, do you have any requests/ideas about things to do with this?

Girafe

Pigeons don't appear IG  &Thk/(
The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

Lowkee33

I know it's not a solution, but try re-loading the city a couple times.

whatevermind

Quote from: Lowkee33 on May 09, 2012, 04:56:14 PM
The Effect Structure link was very helpful for me.  There are a couple places that I'm not sure are correct, and a few others where Reader would disagree (output to screen wise).  I would have to check the code I wrote to know exactly where.  There is also a DWORD described as a rep, but that rep is always zero in SimCity Dat.  Don't think I'm going to argue though.

I would encourage argument in this case  ;D

The EFFDIR is one of the sections that never was fully decoded (or at least if it was, I haven't found the results yet) - so I would say that if you find things that don't seem right as you go along, it would be helpful to point them out.  I have a (very) long-term project to transfer all the old SC4 articles from the ModTheSims2 Wiki (most of which are now on the Sims2Wiki) over to the SC4D Wiki, and I'm trying to cleanup and crosscheck and update the articles as I go.  Mostly cleanup, little bit of checking, with the ideal goal of getting them all up to date and easy to find/read/understand.

I haven't gotten to the EFFDIR page yet, and lately the real world has put the entire project on hold, but if it would be helpful, I can rush that page through, and get it on the SC4D Wiki, possibly this weekend.  Then at least it would be in a more accessible location, and if you do find errors in the description, it can be updated to reflect them.  Let me know.

On a more general note, a lot of the info in the file formats articles is ancient, and hasn't been updated in years - so there's a good chance that they don't reflect the latest understandings of what the files contain and how they work.  The NAM team oversees a lot of the transportation items to some degree, but much of the rest hasn't been touched since the days of Karybdis & Co.  Since you're one of the few people in a position to be looking at these files, understand them, and be able to test them, I'd encourage you to point out any errors/discrepancies you encounter along the way, so they can be further researched, and corrected if necessary.

NCGAIO

#24
Real life that is the problem ... I think it would be a great benefit to get put back the link in Wiki to the tables "SC4 InfoPages (Such as occupants, etc.)" essential to certain modifications, and that today can only be accessed in several separate posts here on the forum.

Lowkee33 ... many ideas of what to do, what they lack is time!

It may be more informative to the wiki page of the relationships between files

Quote
This file contains a list of all the relations of the SC4 Filetypes as currently known. This will exclude the Savegame formats as their parents are the exe, and their children are any number of files that it decides to pull in as it wants to. Building exemplars for the building file and so forth. It shows the parents of each file, IE the file which is responsible for the filetype opening, and the children, which are things it causes to open.

Format for FileType Relations:
Format -- 0xGID - Groupid 0xAAAABBBB (optional) - For GroupIDs with multiple section types, the format for that group type
      Children - Things loaded as a result of this file.
Relations (name, kind,propertyidifavailable) Parent - Things that caused this file to be loaded Relations (name, kind,propertyidifavailable) Dependant (optional) - Dependant relations. A file contains details that are carried out by another file Relations (name, kind, propertyidifavailable) 0xGID -Group IDs for this format, next group. etc.
End of Sample

To show different variations of Instances inside a GID that may have different children and parents, instance format codes like used in the GIID spec may be seen in the usual 0xAAAABBBB type format.

Spec Follows

Effect Dir -- ea5118b1 - Effect Resource Tree Children FSH, ResourceKey, In section 1 the effect may call itself a texture by instance S3D, ResourceKeys, In section 1 a list of resource keys may call random S3D files FSH, Resourcekey, In Section 2 terrain dependant FSH file Exemplar, ResourceKey, In section 5 terrain brush exemplar LUA, String, Section 6 string links to a representative string in LUA generators/attractors/repulsors by var. EXE, CID, Section 7 U4 property almost certainly links to the exe by classid TRK, ResourceKey, Section 9 resource Key links to a track def for sounds. EXE, String, Section 10 strings almost certainly link to the EXE for train vars EXE, CID, U4 in section 12 probably links to the exe by classid Parent EXE, CID, the exe may call an effect in 13,14,15 by instance or CID EXE, String, the exe may call a string in the effdir directories 13,14,15 by name Exemplar, property, 0x4a08c700 property calls an effect name for use by exemplars (often disasters) Exemplar, property, 0xc98204b8 property calls an effect name for use in an effect exemplar by string Exemplar, property, 0xc98204b9 property calls an effect name for use in an effect exemplar by string Exemplar, property, in absence of the 0xc98204b8/9 property Exemplar name of gid 0xc977c536 calls an effect by string S3D, name, the effect name in the REGP section of an S3d May spawn an effect by directory name in the Effdir LUA, , fx, the fx command allows to reference an effect inside the effect dir from an LUA
[/b]

Source: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Relations

Lowkee33

Quote from: whatevermind on May 11, 2012, 10:42:11 PM
I would encourage argument in this case  ;D

I dug into it a little bit.  In section 12, when the link (LINK) has the 2x 2 bytes, I read this as 2x 4 Bytes (two unsigned integers rather than two unsigned shorts).  I can't really test the rep thing a) because I have no idea what the heck it would do anyway, and b) the only way I can get it into the game is through Reader (I can't to DBPF compression).  If Reader is looking for a rep that isn't a rep, then changing the amount of rep is going to cause a Reader crash.  Whether or not that would crash SC4 is another thing.

catty

Quote from: Lowkee33 on May 12, 2012, 12:30:49 PM
...and b) the only way I can get it into the game is through Reader (I can't to DBPF compression)...

I use two other programs to open up SC4 files the first is game extractor which is a commercial product

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

it can only read SC4 files, and the other is DatGen4 which was created by DarkMatter and is on the STEX

http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/21341-datgen-v0-6-0b-complete/

:)
I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" DEATH thought about it. "CATS," he said eventually, "CATS ARE NICE.

NCGAIO

#27
There is one last update to version 0.7.13 DatGen available on the link below ... (Version 0.60b in stex)

Datgen 0.7.13 (Last Alpha Release)

Many information and tutorials on the use can still be found on the Wayback Machine web archive on the link

Datgen.info

Girafe

Pigeons work fine now, have you a weather effect ready for test, I am curious to see this  ::)
The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

Lowkee33

Thanks for the links  :thumbsup:

Quote from: Girafe on May 12, 2012, 02:31:40 PM
Pigeons work fine now, have you a weather effect ready for test, I am curious to see this  ::)

Antoine, you've had access to the snow for months, enter the dark world  ;)

null45

Quote from: Lowkee33 on May 12, 2012, 12:30:49 PM
the only way I can get it into the game is through Reader (I can't to DBPF compression).

The QFS compression used by SC4 is documented on the wiki (including example decompression code).  :)



xannepan

Hi

I have a request. I wanted to use some water effects (foams, wakes, wash..) to givensome additional realism to the animated water mill I am making. Turns out that if I add effects to a lot and set the lotconfigwatercompatibility to 1 ( ie it can be plopped on water) some effects (e.g bridge wakes, heliwake) show up on the water surface, but fountains do not show up when plopped on water, but only when plopped on land ( and vice versa).

Is there any way you could reproduce new instances of the land effects so they will show up when plopped on water? i'm particularly interested in the smallfountainC effect....

I'd like to try myself, but I,m affraid this is beyond mybcurrent modding skills.

Whatever you decide working on.. I,m sure it'll be great again :-)

Cheers!

Lowkee33

Sorry about that locked file everyone.  There are some issues with the sound not working correctly, and the thing that should have fixed it didn't.  Girafe and others also pointed out that it wasn't working at all.  I did something that shouldn't have fixed it and it did, so there might be something strange going on here.  &mmm.

@Null45:  I've been to that page, and also download some code from the first post here:LINK.  It is a little beyond me at this point.  But that's just decompression anyway, right?  I need to compress...

@Xannepan:  I'll have a look at that, seems like something that would just be the flip of a switch.  Warm weather has come here, so I haven't been at the computer much these days. 

mrbisonm

Quote from: xannepan on May 24, 2012, 11:17:02 AM
Hi

I have a request. I wanted to use some water effects (foams, wakes, wash..) to givensome additional realism to the animated water mill I am making. Turns out that if I add effects to a lot and set the lotconfigwatercompatibility to 1 ( ie it can be plopped on water) some effects (e.g bridge wakes, heliwake) show up on the water surface, but fountains do not show up when plopped on water, but only when plopped on land ( and vice versa).

Is there any way you could reproduce new instances of the land effects so they will show up when plopped on water? i'm particularly interested in the smallfountainC effect....

I don't know if this will help you, but I made the fountains so I can plop them on water for my MD.
Open the PIM and search for the fountain model, make a LM with it and put it on a 1x1 lot, then remove the textures and voila, a fountain in the water. The reason you cannot see it without making a LM with it, is because it is a prop and props sink in water when you plop them. ;)

Fred


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)

null45

Quote from: Lowkee33 on May 24, 2012, 04:45:40 PM
I've been to that page, and also download some code from the first post here:LINK.  It is a little beyond me at this point.  But that's just decompression anyway, right?  I need to compress...

What language are you using?
I have some QFS decompression / compression code written in C# that I could PM you.

NCGAIO

#35
 &idea Maybe it was easier and faster to use what is already contained in Ilive-Reder

All code can be found on Sourceforge.net

SCM Repositories - iLive-reader-code

:thumbsup: - http://ilive-reader.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ilive-reader/branches/v1.4/

JoeST

Quote from: null45 on May 25, 2012, 01:33:54 PM
What language are you using?
I have some QFS decompression / compression code written in C# that I could PM you.
Could I be superduper rude and possibly ask for that code for reference too? :D
Copperminds and Cuddleswarms

Lowkee33

Quote from: null45 on May 25, 2012, 01:33:54 PM
What language are you using?
I have some QFS decompression / compression code written in C# that I could PM you.

I'm using c++, but I would be very happy to see what you've done.  It would probably be a useful exercise for me for real life in general. 

Reader is very complicated for me.  I've got it compiling, but passed that I am not sure.

Lowkee33

The Pigeon Brush has been updated and unlocked!  LINK.  Thanks for the patience everyone.

HurricaneMod10

I've been working on editing and creating new Effects with the Hurricane Modding but I made the Effects with the reader is goes to crashing on it.

How did you made the Robot's smoke purple with the Effect Dir and some other parameters, and snow was so created on it?

So I cannot be able to saving the Effect Dir with the reader is crashing it, so please help me to supporting the problems with the reader is crashing it.