SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

SimCity 4 Devotion Custom Content Showcase => BSC Place => Team Custom Content Projects => BSC Functional Seaports => Topic started by: bombardiere on June 23, 2016, 02:35:45 PM

Title: Seaport controllers and CTD?
Post by: bombardiere on June 23, 2016, 02:35:45 PM
I have been reading these post and I have noted teh need of seaport / airport controller to avoided serious CTD. Ok, I understand that , but is it know why seaports cause teh CTD? I haven't spotted that info in the texts.

Is is the automatic upgrading or something else? Maxis Plug-in-Manager allows to create seaports, so I wonder what makes those so unsafe?

I want to learn more, because I have been bitten by the Historic Harbour bug and I want to use this spendid proppack to create my own functional seaports. If I use those on my own, I am pretty safe I guess, but if I want to share my work, I need to learn more about seaport modding.
Title: Re: Seaport controllers and CTD?
Post by: vortext on June 23, 2016, 04:15:09 PM
It's because functional sea- and airports, in addition to ordinary building and lot exemplars, also use so-called developer exemplars, which are a pretty fundamental file type. For instance the CAM acts on RCI developers, and is often the case with these kind of files there can be only one active at a time - akin to terrain and tree controllers. And like those controllers, the developers also contain a number of tables with the lot IDs, capacity, etc.

Now, making a seaport in Maxis PIM, or SC4PIM for that matter isn't inherently unsafe, it simply won't be functional, i.e. it will not receive freight nor provide cap relief. In order for that to happen it needs to be added to the developers. Now you could do that and distribute your own developers, but this would obviously cause conflict with the BSC Seaports (and airports!).

Furthermore, if you take an existing functional seaport and use the 'save as' option in Maxis PIM it'd get assigned a new IID and things break. Even changing the dimensions of an existing functional seaport lot will cause problems, because it will no longer match port dimensions in the developer. For these reasons the BSC Seaports contain a number of empty seaport lots and corresponding enablers, i.e. developer exemplars.

If you want to make one for your own use, it's okay to make changes to the developers. For example I increased capacity and changed dimensions of 'Custom Seaport #7' for my own use (and yes, had CTDs while figuring stuff out). If you want to release a new functional seaport, which I'm all for, then you'll need to pick one of the templates provided.
Title: Re: Seaport controllers and CTD?
Post by: Andreas on June 23, 2016, 04:15:55 PM
I just posted some information about airport and seaport controllers here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=17494.msg510190#msg510190
Title: Re: Seaport controllers and CTD?
Post by: bombardiere on June 26, 2016, 01:33:25 PM
Thank you both, I think I understand it now better.

Yes, I know that there are blank spots in seaport and airport controller. Do you know that ifanyone besides Simpeg has made functional seaports? In other words are any blank spots used?

Or what if I cheat? Instead of making a fully functional seaport, I would just make a waterfront lot with freight receiving capacity, as such as in rail freight station and some demand cap.

I post of a picture which shows what is in my mind. Ok, this is not a port, but a passenger ferry. Made with Historic Harbour props and recycled building of mine. It seems to be fully functional and sims are using it, but I have some issues with the lot foundation and making it invisible. So that it would show water and terrain, not blue or black default texture.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1381.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fah207%2Fbombardiep108%2FHHferry_zpspclsteho.jpg&hash=691d58e3325a6d587b0eb89b368378549bbc3e49) (http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/bombardiep108/media/HHferry_zpspclsteho.jpg.html)