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PIMX Official support thread

Started by wouanagaine, November 04, 2009, 12:56:55 PM

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Kitsune

How do I get it to load maxis props and textures ? I've come to notice its not loading them. I've confirmed its pointing at the correct folder.
~ NAM Team Member

Krasner

@Kitsune :

Maxis stuff is located into the Simcity_1.dat to ..._5.dat files. As far as I remember, ..._1.dat contains buildings, ..._2.dat all the textures, I don't know about the others. Basically PIMX loads folders, so to get these you need to displace the five things into an interim folder, which you load. And then don't forget to put back the files into their location before starting to play  ;) Maybe there's an other way but I've always been working like this.
ANARCHIST !!

mgb204

Bear in mind the application is probably looking at the Windows registry and finding the Plugins folders from the settings there:


  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe
    This is the SimCity DAT files containing all Maxis Props/Texture//Buildings Etc
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Plugins
    For most users this will be empty.
  • C:\Users\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins
    The default location for user plugin files

If any of the folders shown do not match the actual location of these elements, then your registry settings are wrong. So either fix that or move the files to the expected location. If the registry settings are wrong, most likely you've installed a new version of SC4 without removing the old one first. Otherwise perhaps you've manually moved these files after installing the application. Neither of which are recommended unless you know what you are doing.

Kitsune

Well its prolly the registry then - as I've been moving the registry entries each time I've got a new computer.
~ NAM Team Member

SC4l0ver

Hello!  :)

Now that I could start SC4PIM properly, I have another issue. I ran SC4PIM as an administrator, and I loaded just a couple of subfolders of my Plugins folder (just ticked a couple of boxes in the first screen). So, the main screen appeared without appearing first the little window with the model images loading. Instead,SC4PIM couldn't load the preview pictures of props, textures, models, etc. (you can see it in the error window, there was text appearing frantically).

The folders I loaded are BSC (which includes both buildings and dependencies), another where I keep almost all TSC/VIP Team mods, and a last one where I keep many transportation plugins (stations, airports and dependencies), which is the stuff I need to create some lots. I tried to load them separately (specifically just the BSC textures pack), but the error persists.

Thank you in advance!

mgb204

The little screen with lots of entries indicates you are loading too many files, at some point the application can no longer cope and fails to correctly process them. Try again with less files and you should find it works. But the BSC folder is probably very large, you may have to temporarily split that into smaller chunks. Ultimately you should only be loading those files you need for the specific lotting task at hand, which is not only recommended in the documentation but also the best method for lotting.

Kitsune

Is this caused by hitting the prop (item?) limit on a lot?

Here is an image of the prop list for a lot:



Here is the error msg when I save:

********************* ERROR *********************
in examplar 0x6534284AL 0xA8FBD372L 0x276E425CL
located in C:\Users\admin\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\jy 9-13x9_276e425c.SC4Lot
Prop  0x88EDCE00L
*************************************************
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 971, in OnSaveTab
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 535, in Maj
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 446, in BinaryRep
  File "SC4DatTools.pyo", line 335, in BinaryRep
KeyError: 2297286144L
~ NAM Team Member

vortext

If that's all the items of the lot, than no, not a limit issue, irrc the limit is ~1900 items. This includes all items, i.e. textures, props, flora. That said, I haven't seen the issue before so not sure what it could be.
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Kitsune

Quote from: vortext on January 23, 2018, 09:36:54 AM
If that's all the items of the lot, than no, not a limit issue, irrc the limit is ~1900 items. This includes all items, i.e. textures, props, flora. That said, I haven't seen the issue before so not sure what it could be.

I forgot to mention that is only a small subset of the props - if I went to include all the props you would be scrolling for a couple minutes. That image is where the cutoff point is from named entry to unnamed entry.
~ NAM Team Member

Simmer2

#449
The limit is actually 1280 and yep, you hit the wall  :D

Same thing happened to me. I ended up splitting the lot.

Simmer2/Nick
________________________________________________________________________________

Kitsune

Quote from: Simmer2 on January 23, 2018, 11:01:28 AM
The limit is actually 1280 and yep, you hit the wall  :D

Same thing happened to me. I ended up splitting the lot.

Simmer2/Nick

wow. I'm modifing a lot from 2006 - it honestly does not look like that many props when I enlarged it. So I have to split it - meaning another piece as the area is cut in half diagonally by a rail line.; well now 18 lots required.
~ NAM Team Member

Simmer2

Quote from: Kitsune on January 23, 2018, 11:21:03 AM
Quote from: Simmer2 on January 23, 2018, 11:01:28 AM
The limit is actually 1280 and yep, you hit the wall  :D

Same thing happened to me. I ended up splitting the lot.

Simmer2/Nick

wow. I'm modifing a lot from 2006 - it honestly does not look like that many props when I enlarged it. So I have to split it - meaning another piece as the area is cut in half diagonally by a rail line.; well now 18 lots required.

I had the same issue with my first lot where a curved rail spur crossed the split point but since its not TE'd at that point, both halves connected seamlessly when plopped.
And by the way, just like Erik said, the 1280 count, includes everything, not just props. Base textures, overlays, the building and of course the props.

Simmer2/Nick
________________________________________________________________________________

Andreas

Textures also count against the prop limit. Say, you enlarge a 10x10 lot by two "rows", that's up to 40 new lines already. And if you use some transit enabling, those count towards the 1280 entries, too.

EDIT: Nick was a bit faster than me... ;)
Andreas

Kitsune

The lot I'm enlarging has transit switches, which I've been deleting in iLives. Quite lucky I never hit this limit when I lotted the container portion of my port.
~ NAM Team Member

scotttbarry

Hello, I've had this error for awhile now but now deciding to ask for help  :D when I try to move up a prop using CTRL + Arrowkey UP it fails and gives me this error message.  I have downloaded the suggested files GLU/GLUT and the MSV and the updated properties, and have an NVidia 970 Graphics card (I don't know if that matters but posted).  Thank you in advance for any help/suggestions

-Scott

Tyberius06

Hi!

It's not just a recent problem, since I started using for lotting purpose Delecto Plopable People Props during the last year, all the time if I try to load in the dat file, I would get the same error messages in PIM-X. Most of the cases the PIM-x is still stayed functional, but some other plugins with props are loosing the image of their props in the PIM-X LE. So what can cause the problem how can I resolve it? If I need to modify the original dat, that wouldn't be a problem, it's only bothering me during the lotting, so if I could make a properly working version of that file, that would be fine...
Anyway here are the error messages...



Thanks in advance for any help!

- Tyberius
You may find updates about my ongoing projects into my development thread here at SimCity 4 Devotion: Tyberius Lotting Experiments
or over there on Simtropolis into the Tyberius (Heretic Projects) Lotting and Modding Experiments.
I'm also member of the STEX Custodian and working on different restoration projects on behalf of non-anymore-active custom content creators.
Current projects: WMP Restoration and SimCity Polska Restoration.
Member of the NAM Team and RTMT Team.

vortext

Well the mmp seems to work fine - on my end at least - and the image type warning seems to indicate some sort of of issue on your end. What you could try is clearing out the imageDBs. If you go to the install location of SC4PIM you'll find two folders - ImageDB & ImageDBLarge - which hold all the LE preview images. Try temporarily moving the contents to a backup location and start SC4PIM with empty imageDB folders. This will force the program to make new previews, and thus doing hopefully resolve the issue (note that startup times may be longer depending how many previews it has to generate).
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Tyberius06

Thanks a lot. It solved the problem! :)
You may find updates about my ongoing projects into my development thread here at SimCity 4 Devotion: Tyberius Lotting Experiments
or over there on Simtropolis into the Tyberius (Heretic Projects) Lotting and Modding Experiments.
I'm also member of the STEX Custodian and working on different restoration projects on behalf of non-anymore-active custom content creators.
Current projects: WMP Restoration and SimCity Polska Restoration.
Member of the NAM Team and RTMT Team.

inkrender

Hello  :)

So I installed PIM-X the other night and just started working yesterday. I've read parts of the user guide that I only need to know. In this case, editing existing lots. Since I'm only working on making downloaded custom contents CAMpatible. But then, since yesterday I can't figure out how to work out this certain content to be CAMpatible: CP_Early19thCenturySmallHouses

As you can see on the attachments, I only have LotConfig, Prop and a blank building(?)
But the user guide says, I need the model and lot.

Could I ask a help on how/ways to work around this? My goal is to just make it fit to CAM, which is adding a filling degree.

Note: I opened a few of the LotConfig on lot editor. And saw lots that has more than one building in them. (just pointed this out too, might hold some additional info)

fantozzi

#459
First a hint: the development curve of the standard game and the colossus addon mod for the first grow stages 1-3 are almost identical, so normally there is no need to adjust RCI for those. One could say - the higher the capacity/bigger size the building is the more important is to adjust the stats for CAM.

The capacity is calculated on WxLxH (width x length x height = occupant size) x density according to stage, density and health. Now the trick is 3d-models can be of very different shape so it can be difficult to find a proper wxlxh (imagine L-shaped buildings). So for the game every 3d-model is surrounded by a virtual box, called the LOD. The capacity isn't calculated on base of the dimensions of the model but on base of the dimensions of this LOD.

This is the yellow box you see always in PIM-X.

Therefore it is possible to make an invisible or empty building with only using a LOD without an object inside it. Witch would be an invisible building and instead making the 3d-model a prop appearing on a lot. There are advantages and disadvantages working with those invisible buildings. But it is possible to do that.

So what you see is an empty LOD with the dimensions of 1x1x1 meters - which isn't of any help for PIM-X to calculate the amount of habitants - how many people could live on a space of one cubic meter?  :angrymore:

So, if you want to calculate the capacity of the building the right way the LOD needs proper dimensions and the best way to manipulate occupant capacities of buildings is indeed to manipulate the size of the LOD, the occupant size, especially when changing the filling degree in PIM-X doesn't give satisfying results.

To change the dimensions of the LOD I use ilive's Reader.

Here is another interesting reading:
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=17817.0