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PIMX Official support thread

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

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eugenelavery

I made sure i have all the .dll files mentioned on the first page. Now when I click on the application nothing happens at all, not even an error message. Was I meant to have all the .dll files mentioned? My computer already had a couple of them and I copied them over to the PIM folder, the other two I downloaded.

mgb204

Yes you need all of the .dll files, think of them as dependencies.

Have you tried right clicking on the shortcut and selecting Run as Administrator? It may be you need elevated privileges to open the application. Check also that the application is white listed in any anti-virus/security software you may have, since that may be preventing the application from running.

eugenelavery

Quote from: mgb204 on February 13, 2019, 01:04:03 AM
Yes you need all of the .dll files, think of them as dependencies.

Have you tried right clicking on the shortcut and selecting Run as Administrator? It may be you need elevated privileges to open the application. Check also that the application is white listed in any anti-virus/security software you may have, since that may be preventing the application from running.

Hmm, still no luck. Kind of confused as to what the issue is, don't normally have such problems.

mgb204

Have you checked the log file? Does it's time/datestamp update when you try to run PIM-X? If it does, could you post a copy of it's contents.

eugenelavery

Quote from: mgb204 on February 14, 2019, 07:36:32 AM
Have you checked the log file? Does it's time/datestamp update when you try to run PIM-X? If it does, could you post a copy of it's contents.

My log file says this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SC4PIM.py", line 1, in ?
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 96, in ?
  File "wx\__init__.pyo", line 45, in ?
  File "wx\_core.pyo", line 4, in ?
  File "wx\_core_.pyo", line 12, in ?
  File "wx\_core_.pyo", line 10, in __load
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

This means I am missing a DLL? Not sure how, I downloaded them or copied them over to the PIMx folder.

mgb204

Which specific location did you copy these .dll files too. Please can you list each .dll file in that location.

Note too, where a 64-bit or 32-bit variant of .dlls exist, which you need is nothing to do with your O/S, but the application. So if you've installed any 64-bit files, those won't be the ones the application is looking for.

Also, I asked about the Date/Time Stamp of that log file and whether or not it updates when you run the application. This is because, if it does not, this information might be a total red herring, so it's really, really important you confirm if this is the case or not.

eugenelavery

Quote from: mgb204 on February 14, 2019, 09:50:51 PM
Which specific location did you copy these .dll files too. Please can you list each .dll file in that location.

Note too, where a 64-bit or 32-bit variant of .dlls exist, which you need is nothing to do with your O/S, but the application. So if you've installed any 64-bit files, those won't be the ones the application is looking for.

Also, I asked about the Date/Time Stamp of that log file and whether or not it updates when you run the application. This is because, if it does not, this information might be a total red herring, so it's really, really important you confirm if this is the case or not.

Ah, I installed 64-bit thinking it related to the OS. I will fix that and see what happens.

eugenelavery

The log file was irrelevant. I uninstalled everything and then reinstalled. Nothing happens when I try to start PIM and I get no log file.

I saved all the .dll into Windows (C)/Program Files (x86)/SCPIM

mgb204

Well the lack of a log file is relevant, because it tells us the program isn't getting far enough to create one. However, when the .dll files were missing, it did get this far, so the question is what has changed? You could have determined this from the time/date stamp of the log file, I suspect re-installing the application may have simply confused the issue.

Depending on how the uninstaller works, or more specifically how you uninstalled SC4PIM, most likely it is now necessary to start over with setting it up. That means installing the Windows Vista+ fixes, adding the .dll files and setting any compatibility modes for the application. Because all that information is typically lost when you uninstall something and it cleans up the install folder.

Hopefully at that point, the log file will be working again, because it's really the only information we have to determine what's wrong.

Outside of that, the following possibilities present themselves:

  • Windows is not granting the application the permissions required to run successfully.
    Just as before, ensure it's got Admin (elevated) privileges. You may also need to manually assign such rights to the install folder, but typically if that were the problem, you'd expect an error message to appear.
  • Another application/process is interfering/conflicting with PIM-X.
    Possible, but not highly likely.
  • You have a compatibility issue with your system and PIM-X.
    Again, not likely.

Frankly, all three of these possibilities are debunked by the fact that previously it was running, but with errors. Which tells me there is no reason we shouldn't be able to get back to that state. At which point, I suspect one of the .dll files you've used is either incorrect or in the wrong place.

eugenelavery

When I go to the site to download the .dll files there are multiple options for most of them, does it matter which one I use? I just selected one of the 32-bit versions. Thank you for your continuing help with this pesky issue.

mgb204

Sadly it's very difficult to say, because .dll files are pesky buggers and the specific ones you need depend entirely upon what was used when making the application.

As a programmer, these files are listed by the programming tool when you compile your app. But, unless you pay big bucks, it's not usually possible to re-distribute them directly with the application. Hence these issues with tools made by hobbyists are rarely there with commercial apps, who's developers pay the fees.

Confusing the issue more, none of these .dll files were intended to be distributed as standalone files. In fact, most such downloads are probably in breach of copyright, since it's highly unlikely the site you've found them on pays royalties to Microsoft etc. for them. Instead you are supposed to download the "runtime" kit which includes them and installs them correctly on your machine, it gets very complex quickly.

Where possible it's better to copy those you have manually to the system folder C:\Windows\SysWOW64. Any that remain, do a Google search, but don't download the .dll, find the "kit" it was included with and get that instead.

MSVCP71.DLL requires the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x86) package, I think version 2008.

GLU32.dll and GLUT32 come from the OpenGL drivers, which should already be on your system as part of your videocard drivers.

Lastly the GDIPLUS.dll comes from this Microsoft Runtime (GDI+).

If you install these correctly from the runtime packages, they should just work. Of course, there any many versions for all different development environments, if you get the wrong version it won't work properly because it may not contain the modules needed by the application.

lather30

I've installed PIM-X on my Windows 10 machine, along with all of the recommended updates and patches for W7, etc. Unfortunately, it just won't launch. When I try, all I get is the splash graphic, followed by a plain white pop-up window. This window is headed "wxPython:stdout/stderr", and contains the following text:

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 cannot find the file specified.')

Does anyone have an idea what the problem is, and how I can solve it?

xxdita

I'm not totally certain about error messages, as I get very few of them.

But this looks like it may have something to do with the Windows Registry Keys. Have you moved SC4 from its original install path?

lather30

No, I didn't change any of the defaults, so its in C:/Program Files (x86)/SC4PIM.

xxdita


lather30

Oops - I didn't read your message properly, as I was thinking about PIM-X...

SC4 is at C:/GOG Games/SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition, which again was the default installation location.

So no, no change to the defaults.


xxdita

Ok, so googling the error message leads to a 32bit vs 64bit conflict in the registry. Maybe check to make sure that you've installed the 32bit or x86 versions of the dependency dll's.

lather30

OK, well I confirmed that they were the 64-bit versions that I'd installed. But just on the off-chance that one had got corrupted or something, I downloaded and reinstalled them all and...

It's working!

So it's a bit of a puzzle why it didn't work and said there was a 32/64-bit conflict, but it looks like it's fixed...  &mmm

JP Schriefer

#498
Hello folks :)

So I'm currently on a process of improving my creations and I have a question about the 'Filling degree' thing. From what I read we have to estimate the space inside the yellow box our building is occuping, and I think the Wellington Hotel model, for example, would be something between 0.6 or 0.7. The 'problem' here is that with this degree SC4PIM will understand the building is stage 11 (10 to 12), and my BATs are not supposed to have CAM stages at first. What I noticed I could do was to change the degree level for 0.6 and when the automatic pop-up appears asking me to change the stage level I cancel it. This way I manage to have the building as 0.6 and still stage 7, as intended.
Is that ok to do? I fear this would be something that could corrupt the data or lead to other problems. Thank you very much.



xxdita

The filling degree is what will be used to determine all of a building's stats, so it is important that you get it as right as possible.

As for the lot, if you're not using CAM, then you really only have the options of stage 7 or 8. That's really a judgment call best decided on comparing the specific building with other models of the same size. I would say that anything PIMX would suggest as stage 7 up to about stage 10 would likely fall into the nonCAM stage 7 range. Anything from stage 10 to 15 would really only work as a stage 8. These are just general guidelines, and you should test how often your buildings grow in game, compared to others of the same stage, as well as how quickly it upgrades to the next stage.

But if you're planning on releasing the lot, then I would suggest having a CAM and nonCAM version available. Vanilla stage 7 and 8s can really screw up the balance of how things grow for CAM players.