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Lot Tutorials

Started by huzman, June 01, 2018, 10:35:57 PM

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huzman

I'm getting an itch to start putting my hands under the hood of SC4 and I think that the Lot Editor could be the first step.
I searched High and Low for LE tutorials and frankly, the results are dimming my fervor.
One of them is rather old and the screen shots don't show up.
Another one shows a text in linear way (in french we say 'writing on a mile') plus a lot codes and it makes the file unreadable.
And more...

Could someone point me to a beginner's LE tutorial?

Thanks.
« Essayez d'apprendre quelque chose sur tout et tout sur quelque chose. »
             « Try to learn something about everything and everything about something »
                          « Trata de aprender algo sobre todo y todo sobre algo »
                                                                                                    — Thomas Henry Huxley

Ralfger

#1
Hi,
I use LE only occasionally but let me share some of my findings made by trial and error, browsing the topics and from hints of more advanced players:
1. Before opening LE, try to minimize your Plugin folder, otherwise it takes ages to load LE
2. Find an appropriate lot to work with with respect to your goals - use "open"
3. Use "save as" to save your new lot if you don´t want to overwrite the original one ("save")
4. In the game you may find your newly created lot near the original one (if you don´t use additional programms)
5. If you change the initial building, you find your lot near the oríginal lot of that new buliding
6. On the right side you can work and place your different objects, in the upper left you see the visual result of your efforts, beneath you can find the different commands
7. First define the depth and wide of your future lot and where the street adjoins
9. There are different tabs available: e.g. base textures, overlay textures, buildings, props, flora
    a) base textures: the "soil" of your lot; each tile needs at least such a base texture, otherwise it is not possible to save
    b) overlay textures: a second layer on top of the base texture to add more variaty to the ground and to lay out networks like streets, railways,  pathes etc.
       If you want to use more than one overlay texture on a single tile, you have to press "d" while placing the additional one
    c) Props are the little objects making a lot alive - from bins, fences, lampposts, people, and cars to trees, plants, and animals. I think there is a limit of props you can save on a lot, but I am not sure. It should be quite a number anyway... It is possible to stack and overlay props without special commands but you can´t save a lot with overhanging (=exceeding the lot´s boundaries) props.
     d) Flora - as the name says. Be aware that some of the flora and prop items are timed and show up in the game only during a limited period of time
9) As I´ve learned from Griafe these days: If you want to place seasonal flora, you have to use the resp. props. There are props for three up to four different seasons per model that have to be placed on top of each other to work properly.

I hope that gives you a good start - and have fun!

huzman

hello Ralfger:
Thanks for you tips. I'm sure they will be very helpful... if I can get to that level.
Right now I'm trying to make LE to work. It's time consuming but I'm it will be done before the end of the day.
cordially,

-h
« Essayez d'apprendre quelque chose sur tout et tout sur quelque chose. »
             « Try to learn something about everything and everything about something »
                          « Trata de aprender algo sobre todo y todo sobre algo »
                                                                                                    — Thomas Henry Huxley

fantozzi

#3
When you want to create something with LE preparation is an important part.

When I did Colossus farming I spent 4 month to play around with different prop packs, to find out witch props gibe the best results on my idears oand so on. It's like you do sketches with a pencil first, before you start the real painting with oil.

Try to use all possibilities, try to discover different techniques of creation. Use paper and pen to make design, get inspiration by other users and the props they created, try different lot sizes and proportions etc.

Take time before sharing. For me it happens often, I do different versions of one idea, I do five lots and delete four of them and keep only the one I like most. So don't be satisfied with one version of your idea, always try different ones.

Load custom lots done by other users. I, myself learned much by looking on paeng's or Andreas' lots in LE, moving things around and asking myself, why did they put this here and there, understanding how they used space and color.   

Start with a simple project first with only 3,4 dependencies and texture/props resources.

One of the big problems is to remember the names of certain props and find them, if there are many 1000 props in your list. I made a little booklett myself with a list of the names of my prefered prop and the plugin pack they appear in.

It's about playing around and have a little patience until you get used to certain action. Like learning to drive a car. In the first days you have to concentrate to press the hutch and change the gear synchronised. But after some time you'll do that automatically without much attention and things become more easy.

It's always the same - the beginning is the hardest time. Aftter a while things become easy.
 

huzman

Fantozzi: Very pertinent tips. I feel like my big brother is looking over my shoulder... Nice feeling
Thanks a bunch for your attention.

Update: Got the LE and the PIM running and put a couple hours just looking at them.
« Essayez d'apprendre quelque chose sur tout et tout sur quelque chose. »
             « Try to learn something about everything and everything about something »
                          « Trata de aprender algo sobre todo y todo sobre algo »
                                                                                                    — Thomas Henry Huxley