Making additional PedMall Tiles

[Sorengaard]

Hi All,

Is it possible to add an additional texture to the "PedMall tiles" and if so is there a tutorial explaining reasonably how? If not, is there a way to add the PedMall "attributes" to a stand alone texture? Thanks for any help.  Steve

[Geronimo]

Hi there.

Found a post from Andreas that might be relevant:

Adding more pedmall puzzle pieces requires advanced knowledge in network modding, so I don't recommend to toy with that yet. What you could do is simply using the same texture (or model, actually, since the textures are flat models that are textured) for all available pedmall pieces. This can be done by modifying the "Resource Key Type 3" property in the pedmall exemplar files - simply use the same ID set than in the first puzzle piece (0x5AD0E817,0xBADB57F1,0x55267100,0x55267101,0x55267102,0x55267103,0x55267104). Don't forget to make a backup of the "NetworkAddonMod5.dat", then you can go back if something goes wrong.

Link to post: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4515.0

Good luck!

[Sorengaard]

Thanks for the help ... a wee bit beyond my limited understanding.  Thanks again.

[Sorengaard]

I was able to eliminate the center pole for the first PedMall tile and I understand how to change the other PedMall tiles to the Center Pole tile.  However is it possible to change say the Open Paved PedMall tile to another texture that isn't a PedMall tile?  The "Resource Key Type 3" property does not exist with the texture I would like to use.  It has a "Resource Key Type 0" and if I replace the Type 3 property with the Type 0 of the texture I want all it does and make the PedMall tile blank.  So again, is it possible to change the look of say the Open Paved PedMall tile to another texture that isn't a PedMall tile? Thanks again for any help.  Steve

[Tarkus]

Steve, you just need to find the texture Instance ID (IID) for the piece you want to change.  Open up the Reader, and look for the S3D with the same IIDs as the exemplar you were looking at (the one with the Resource Type 0).  You can find the IID by looking under the "Mats" tab.  Then, just put a Transit Texture at the same instance as the one listed there, perhaps in a separate .dat with a z- beginning the file name.  The Group ID of Transit Textures needs to be 0x1abe787d. 

Hope that helps!

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Sorengaard]

Thanks Alex,   Once again I find that this is beyond my understanding.  Me thinks I shall have to stick with just the original PedMall tiles.  There are no S3D IIDs from the Open Paved PedMall tile with the same IIds as the exemplar I would like to put in it's place.  They are completely different.  But I may not be looking at the texture I want to use in the right way either.  It is a Maxis texture made as a plain park in the LE so maybe the info isn't even compatible.  I really need a step by step tutorial if it is even possible.  So off to other challenges and thanks again for all the help.  Steve

[wes.janson]

Steve, you just need to find the texture Instance ID (IID) for the piece you want to change.  Open up the Reader, and look for the S3D with the same IIDs as the exemplar you were looking at (the one with the Resource Type 0).  You can find the IID by looking under the "Mats" tab.  Then, just put a Transit Texture at the same instance as the one listed there, perhaps in a separate .dat with a z- beginning the file name.  The Group ID of Transit Textures needs to be 0x1abe787d. 

Hope that helps!

-Alex (Tarkus)

By doing this we would be able to re-texture the specific model needed for whatever pedmall we wish to change?

[Swamper77]

Wes,

Using Alex's method of replacing images, you can retexture a Ped Mall tile. Keep in mind that textures used in S3D models tend to be a little brighter than lot textures, so you will need to darken the replacement texture by 25-30% before converting it into a FSH file.

-Swamper

[wes.janson]

Thanks. I took a crack at retexturing the grass pedmall earlier, but didn't have much luck.

Hopefully I can figure this out as Pedmalls don't transistion to well if one is using their own custom sidewalk mod.

If anyone out there is willing to put together a step by step tutorial on this it would be greatly appreciated.

In the mean time I will keep plugging along.

Wes.

[sithlrd98]

I found out when doing the ave&road curves mod , using the match color feature in photoshop,I had to darken around 60-70 in order to match as close as I could(without pulling all of my hair out!)

Jayson

[wes.janson]

After reading over Alex's post again I was amazed at how easy it was to get it in game. I don't know what I was thinking the first time around. All thats left now is the colour match.

@ Sithlrd98: Thanks for the tip. I don't usually use Photoshop, but I believe I have it on a USB drive somewhere. I've been trying to get a good match through Paint Shop Pro XI, but haven't got it quite close enough. I'll see if I can find the drive and try it out your route.

[Sorengaard]

Hi all,   

I couldn't agree with Wes more in that a tutorial would be greatly appreciated.  All of my attempts haven't worked as well.  The texture I want to use to replace a PedMall tile is a Maxix texture.  Using the Reader I have been able to identify the five FSH texture files.  From this I have made dat files and PNG files of said files.  However in trying to make a Transit Texture IID file I have run into a problem.  Using the SC4Tool I have tried to make Transit Texture files but when I get to the part where I am to load the PNG files the only one that works is the 8 x 8 00 file.  The 01, 02, 03, 04 PNG files all result in "No Valid Image Format!" so I am stuck.  Also in all the things I have done so far with the Maxis File I don't see S3D files. Obviously they are there in the Reader's listing of the PedMall tiles. So I don't know how to do that part of the process as well.  Anyway so far it has been interesting and thanks again for all the response and help.   

Steve

[Tarkus]

Steve--just import the "04" texture (the 128x128/closest zoom), but label the whole thing as ending in "00" where the ID specification is.  SC4Tool will automatically make the farther out zooms.

Edit: To generate the farther out zooms from the closest, simply click on the little "camera" icon just to the left of the 128x128 import button.

Wes, I'm glad I was able to help out there!

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Sorengaard]

Hi again,

OK   So far, I found the Maxis files using Reader which were FSH files.  Then copied the five FSH files to the Reader blank.dat and saved them which became One single dat file. Using FishMan I then made PNG files from the FSH files. Then using SC4Tool Texture Creator I opened the Single dat file and your advice I used the Transit Texture which made five files (I oringinally used the alpha as well which made very washed out files -without the alpha they look the same) and saved them which SC4Tool put into the single dat file that I had made.  When I open that file using reader I now have the Five original Maxis files and now the five new Transit Texture files.  They are all still FSH files.  Even the ones made with SC4Tool.  Am I still doing something wrong or am I on the right path with five SC4Tool files located in the original dat file?  Hope I explained this as to make sense.  Once again thanks for the quick response to my ordeal and questions.

Oh and also the Transit Texture Tutorial says "The final thing that you need is the texture IID, this is something that you should know before you start importing the texture.  Do not ever click "next free IID", you need to know what texture you are replacing or adding."   I don't know what this is referring to so I clicked "next free IID" because there wasn't anything else I could do.

Steve

[Tarkus]

 think I know what you're getting at . . . correct me if I haven't quite answered your question.

If you wondering what the IID is, if you're replacing the texture on the "Center Pole" PedMall tile, you'll want to specify a Texture IID of 0x55267100 in SC4Tool for the PNGs you're importing.  The end product you want is 5 FSH Files, one for each zoom level, which should have IIDs of 0x55267100-4.  The process you went through in SC4Tool, in fact, is to convert PNGs into the game-readable FSH format.  (The game only uses PNGs for menu buttons.)

In fact, if anyone wants a list of the texture IIDs for the Pedmall Tiles, I'm in the .dat right now, so I'll copy these out:

Center Pole: 0x55267100
Open Paved: 0x55267200
Cobblestone: 0x553f2000
Pavement: 0x553f2015 (the range of the last number will be 5-9--this is to avoid wealth-level artifacting on the Cobblestone above)
Grass: 0x553f2025
Sandstone: 0x553f2035

Hope that helps!

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Sorengaard]

Your answer was right on.  The texture that I want now shows up.  Right now the dat file where the FSH files are located is in my My Documents Plugin folder.  Should I just leave it there or move is some where else?  Also is there any way to test that the PedMall attributes are still present with this new texture or do I just check while it is in game?  Thanks once again.  It's very appreciated.

Steve

[Tarkus]

Steve, it sounds to me like you have a finished texture replacement mod already.  You don't need to make a new S3D file.  Just stick the .dat file somewhere where it will load after NetworkAddonMod5.dat, and your new textures should show up on the puzzle piece.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Sorengaard]

Thanks again Alex.  You have been a huge help. 

Steve