PIMX Official support thread

[jmdude1]

ive read through the pages and found why i cant get the PIMX to work for me: i copied my game files from my old laptop to this one, therefore the registry scan(?) doesnt work.
i live abroad now and dont have my game cases here with me (ie. no reg. numbers), only the disks. however, i do have my old laptop and i can get the PIMX to work on it because i installed the game from the disks on it. but, the screen doesnt work, and its old and slow.  is there a way i can copy the registry files to my new laptop? or perhaps any other way to get it to work?

any help would be great. thanks.

[MandelSoft]

Somehow, the PIM-X doesn't work with Windows 8, or at least, not that I know of. It gives this error code:

Code Select Expand


Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3454, in OnClose
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3457, in ShowMain
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 2798, in __init__
pywintypes.error: (2, 'RegOpenKeyEx', 'The system can't find the specified file.')

Is there a bugfix for this? I've already installed the Win7 SP1 fix, but alas, no results...

[CasperVg]

I've had the same error as you on Windows 8, MandelSoft. Seems to be related to the registry entries, judging by the error. I've messed around with it for a bit and eventually found that running it as Administrator seemed to work. Can you try that?

[wouanagaine]

I've stumbled upon this on DatPacker also on win7

looks like the program is not able to ask for a registry key anymore, seems to be an access security level issue
Can't find a workaround either for datPacker, and I'm redoing it in C as it seems to work

However PIMX in C or C++ is a big no-no

I'll trig to dig this more

[MandelSoft]

I've had the same error as you on Windows 8, MandelSoft. Seems to be related to the registry entries, judging by the error. I've messed around with it for a bit and eventually found that running it as Administrator seemed to work. Can you try that?

Run as Admin did do the trick! Thanks!

[fafalone]

*************PLEASE DISREGARD THIS POST******************
I don't want to delete it in case anyone is ever searching for information about the same problem in the future.

Solution: Used an automatic script to insert properties, and an ItemOrder property got inserted into the LotConfigurations exemplar; and the Exemplar Name (0x20) was changed; one of these was likely and invalid value and the issue was solved by removing the ItemOrder property (which belongs in the other lot exemplar) and correcting the Exemplar Name.

********************
I made some lots in LE, edited them with Reader, and now PIMX will not open them.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3367, in OnClose
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3370, in ShowMain
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 2798, in __init__
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3161, in LoadDatas
  File "SC4Data.pyo", line 1300, in Finalize
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 397, in UpdateEntry
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 388, in __init__
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 466, in DecodeBuffer
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 457, in DecodeBinary
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 457, in <lambda>
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 121, in __init__
struct.error: unpack str size does not match format


I narrowed it down to my new lots, this happens when they're the only folder selected or in any group of selected folders, but not when they're not being loaded (other errors happen then, but one step at a time). Any thoughts on what might cause this?

[CasperVg]

Are there any special characters in those new lots? Does Reader load them correctly?

[wouanagaine]

I've stumbled upon this on DatPacker also on win7

looks like the program is not able to ask for a registry key anymore, seems to be an access security level issue
Can't find a workaround either for datPacker, and I'm redoing it in C as it seems to work

However PIMX in C or C++ is a big no-no

I'll trig to dig this more

So I've found the cause
It happens when some registry keys are written/created in the registry using a 64bit program, after that any 32 bit program ( old one like PIMX ) can't access them anymore if not asking kindly to window to get them ( and PIMX doesn't ask kindly )
So for me, it looks like you created the maxis keys by yourself ? maybe edit the registry with regedit32 ?

[phantomglitch]

So I've read all the documentation and guides I can find on using PIM-X, and I understand what the ._loosedesc files are for, but I'm wondering if there is a way to force PIM-X to not combine .sc4desc and .sc4lot into the lot file?  I'm attempting to create a ploppable lot from a growable one, and I'm able to create a new lot with just the building I want, but when I try to copy the lot properties from the original growable lot into the new ploppable lot and then edit the new lot to point to the description file, I have no file to point it to and I end up using the Instance ID shown in PIM-X, which makes the lot invalid.

[wouanagaine]

you can't create a plopable using a builing made for a growable lot, this is a SC4 thing, not a PIMX limitation
You need to create a plopable building first ( using the same model ), and drag&droping it in the correct plopable category

[phantomglitch]

Okay, that makes sense...I figured there was some fundamental difference at work.  What tool might I use to create a ploppable building from a model?

[vester]

PIM or PIM-X

[phantomglitch]

Okay, I think I figured out the problem.  I was creating a new lot from the building, but then trying to place the growable lot's object properties into the ploppable lot, and somehow they aren't compatible from growable to ploppable.

[Doodleroo]

I am experiencing a rather strange issue with PIM:

In my environment, PIM only shows resources stored in the plugins folder within the SimCity application directory.

So far I figured out the following:
- Resources stored in the regular plugins folder will not appear in PIM.
- Once I copy these resources into the plugins folder within the SimCity app directory, they will show up in PIM.
- PIM does find my plugins folder in the registry, displays it upon startup and I check it and all sub-directories, but files will not show up in PIM.

I guess, this problem is related to my rather special setup:
- I am using a MacBook Pro and run SimCity within a VMWare Fusion VM
- VMWare Fusion maps the Windows XP document directory to the Mac document directory
- hence, the path to my document directory is a network path: '\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins'

Copying files back and forth is a usable workaround, but it would be awesome if I did not had to do this

[jaredh]

I'm having trouble getting some dependencies to show up in PIM-X.  These are reliably LTEXT entries and/or sound entries in the lot dependency list.  The LTEXT entries always accompany models that are found.

I can't find anything anywhere that explains why this might be the case.  I've verified multiple times all the dependencies listed in the readmes are present, and in fact listed in the PIM-X dependency list. 

Is this something obvious I'm just missing?

[FrankU]

I have the same I guess. What you mean is that in the dependencies listing the sound and or LTEXT give a missing dependencies warning?
I don't bother, because the lots seem to work without, but in fact this should maybe worry me? 

[jaredh]

The problem here is I can't see the lot to alter it for CAM stages.  I guess I can just go with a blind 0.5 filling degree for the lots that won't open into the tool due to the missing LTEXT/sound dependencies, but I'd rather have the tool show me the BAT so I can get it closer.

[whatevermind]

This is interesting. I've found PIM-X usually can't find sound or LTEXT files when you do the dependency check, and always just figured that to be a bug in the program, but I can't say I've ever had trouble opening a lot in the PIM-X lot editor due to missing sound or LTEXT dependencies. I'm also not sure I've ever checked that particular situation though.

I've been on a similar PIM-Xing spree the past few months and often only ran the program with those dependencies I expected would contain the model(s). So when I opened some of the larger lots in the lot editor to see just how many buildings there were, or because the model itself was transparent and the "buildings" were props, I usually had a field of green diamonds for all the missing dependencies it couldn't find, but it still worked ok.

[jaredh]

Hmm

I'm not new to the SC4 mod community, but very new to the PIM-X tool so I feel fairly lost with this thing.  I'm going into the section under RCI and updating the fill factor there, not in the lot.

To be clearer....the RCI section looks to only be opening the description file.  I haven't been touching the lot files at all.  What I'm seeing is it locates the description file and can open/update it, but it doesn't show the model at all.

I was assuming it was due to missing dependencies, but based on your response, it sounds like I'm doing this all wrong as you seem to be talking about opening the lot.

[whatevermind]

Aha. No, you're doing it right. What you are looking at is the descriptor file, not the lot. I had misunderstood what you were doing.

There's a couple cases where PIM-X won't show you the model. Most of them are because you're just missing the model from your plugins. Once you have the model in your plugins you should be able to see it.

The one common case where you won't see the model is if the lot uses a blank model as the "building" and the visible buildings are simply props. In this case, PIM-X may be showing you the model, but because it's blank, there's nothing to see. The problem that you get here is that many lots that use this method use a ridiculously small blank model - so to get accurate properties you would have to use a filling degree that's huge, bordering on buggy. Ideally, the lot should have a blank model with the same volume as the total volume of buildings on the lot, and a filling degree of 1 - or something very close to that.

If you have a super-tiny blank model, you're pretty much stuck replacing the blank model with a correctly sized one, either by relotting or by scaling the model file. Then you can use the lot editor to see what buildings are on the lot and figure out the correct filling degree for the blank model. Likewise correctly sized blank models still pretty much require looking at the lot editor to get a sense of what's on the lot so you can set the filling degree. Either way, these lots are a pain to work with.

There is also always the case that you simply have a buggy descriptor file, and there's certainly a few of them out there.

Hope that helps explain it a bit more.