• Welcome to SC4 Devotion Forum Archives.

[Tutorial] How to create Puzzle Pieces?

Started by MandelSoft, June 04, 2010, 07:44:50 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

ivo_su

I downloaded this program Path Creator but fail to start despite my attempts. I see that your training  has a window that displays  detailed way the Path editor - but could you tell me how to get to him? I will be very grateful for a little more thorough explanation.

-Ivo

jondor

Quote from: ivo_su on August 30, 2011, 02:14:54 PM
I downloaded this program Path Creator but fail to start despite my attempts. I see that your training  has a window that displays  detailed way the Path editor - but could you tell me how to get to him? I will be very grateful for a little more thorough explanation.

-Ivo

When you first start Path Creator, there are two options: Single frame and Multi frame.  Single frame will take you straight to the window shown in the tutorial, but only lets you work on one tile at a time.  I prefer Multi frame.  You'll get a grid of tiles, set the height and width first, then you can double click each individual frame to get the view in the tutorial and you can make sure paths line up across the tiles.
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.

ivo_su

Quote from: jondor on August 30, 2011, 02:23:46 PM
Quote from: ivo_su on August 30, 2011, 02:14:54 PM
I downloaded this program Path Creator but fail to start despite my attempts. I see that your training  has a window that displays  detailed way the Path editor - but could you tell me how to get to him? I will be very grateful for a little more thorough explanation.

-Ivo

When you first start Path Creator, there are two options: Single frame and Multi frame.  Single frame will take you straight to the window shown in the tutorial, but only lets you work on one tile at a time.  I prefer Multi frame.  You'll get a grid of tiles, set the height and width first, then you can double click each individual frame to get the view in the tutorial and you can make sure paths line up across the tiles.

I can not  figure out where to start  the program? It does not  and will not install. Exe file, as that I can open. Everything was backed up and rolls forth I unzip files found only inside.  I do not know where to  start to put Path Creator  ...

jondor

Quote from: ivo_su on August 30, 2011, 02:45:25 PM
Quote from: jondor on August 30, 2011, 02:23:46 PM
Quote from: ivo_su on August 30, 2011, 02:14:54 PM
I downloaded this program Path Creator but fail to start despite my attempts. I see that your training  has a window that displays  detailed way the Path editor - but could you tell me how to get to him? I will be very grateful for a little more thorough explanation.

-Ivo

When you first start Path Creator, there are two options: Single frame and Multi frame.  Single frame will take you straight to the window shown in the tutorial, but only lets you work on one tile at a time.  I prefer Multi frame.  You'll get a grid of tiles, set the height and width first, then you can double click each individual frame to get the view in the tutorial and you can make sure paths line up across the tiles.

I can not  figure out where to start  the program? It does not  and will not install. Exe file, as that I can open. Everything was backed up and rolls forth I unzip files found only inside.  I do not know where to  start to put Path Creator  ...

There should only be one file inside, PathCreator.jar  It is a Java program, so you will need to download and install the latest Java Runtime Evironment.  Once that is done, you should be able to simply double click and it will open and run.
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.

ivo_su

Quote from: jondor on August 30, 2011, 03:10:06 PM
Quote from: ivo_su on August 30, 2011, 02:45:25 PM
Quote from: jondor on August 30, 2011, 02:23:46 PM
Quote from: ivo_su on August 30, 2011, 02:14:54 PM
I downloaded this program Path Creator but fail to start despite my attempts. I see that your training  has a window that displays  detailed way the Path editor - but could you tell me how to get to him? I will be very grateful for a little more thorough explanation.

-Ivo



When you first start Path Creator, there are two options: Single frame and Multi frame.  Single frame will take you straight to the window shown in the tutorial, but only lets you work on one tile at a time.  I prefer Multi frame.  You'll get a grid of tiles, set the height and width first, then you can double click each individual frame to get the view in the tutorial and you can make sure paths line up across the tiles.

I can not  figure out where to start  the program? It does not  and will not install. Exe file, as that I can open. Everything was backed up and rolls forth I unzip files found only inside.  I do not know where to  start to put Path Creator  ...

There should only be one file inside, PathCreator.jar  It is a Java program, so you will need to download and install the latest Java Runtime Evironment.  Once that is done, you should be able to simply double click and it will open and run.

Jondor  thank you very much and  sorry for stupid questions. It was now only need to add texture to  which are now halfway there. When doing a puzzle piece texture overlay must be, right?

jondor

You'll want to use whatever texture represents the network surface to help line up the paths.
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.

Tarkus

#26
I should also make an "advisory" relating to the use of the Puzzle Piece Maker webtool in creating puzzle pieces.

As the tool was created back in early/mid-2009 and has not been updated much since that time (and its creator, jmvl has been inactive for over a year), the flat S3D models it exports use suboptimal texture mapping settings (which were standard in the early days) that will distort the rendering of the textures for the puzzle piece.

Here is an example of a puzzle piece model that uses the same settings as the Puzzle Piece Maker webtool uses for S3Ds:



And here is that same model, adjusted to the new settings:



As you can see, the texture looks much less "blocky" on the second example, and it'll blend better with texture-based draggable network content. 

Below are a couple of screenshots showing the differences in the S3D texture mapping sections.

Here's what Puzzle Piece Maker S3Ds have for their settings at the bottom of the Mats tab in Reader 0.93 (you'll see this if you click a Material listed in the top box and then scroll down the bottom of the window pane):



Here's the adjusted settings that produced the better result (the affected settings are in the box in red).  Please note that "Clamb" is a typo in the Reader 0.93 code--it reads "Clamp" in later 1.x-series releases of the Reader:



Does this mean you need to avoid Puzzle Piece Maker?  No.  But in order to save everyone a little bit of extra headache, here's some advice.

On the webtool, select Resource Key Type 0 (one model) instead of the default Resource Key Type 3 (one model per zoom--5 total per tile).  While Resource Key Type 3 is standard for most NAM puzzle pieces nowadays for cosmetic reasons, choosing Resource Key Type 0 at this point will actually save work. 

Instead of having to correct 5 S3D models for every tile of your puzzle piece over to the new settings, you can simply fix 1 per tile, and convert the Type 0 setup to a Type 3, by copying the S3D over to the other zoom levels (changing just the Mat instance to reflect the different textures for each zoom, rather than fiddling with 4 dropdown boxes at the bottom of each Mat instance), and switch the exemplar over from Resource Key Type 0 to 3, referencing the new S3Ds you created with the correct settings.

-Alex

ivo_su

Hello again
I have some questions about the formation of paths.
- Which number to change to make a path for pedestrians
- Sned as I kept the numbers of paths puzzle piece exactly where to put them in the reader? I think I use a notebook for recording their advance but then I am not clear how to proceed.



-  Ivo

MandelSoft

1. This is determined by the Transportation Type Identifier. This is the first number under the path name (let's say the name is "car_3_1_a", the first number underneath it should be 1). By default this number is 1, but change it to 2 ("sim") you can convert the car path to a pedestrian path. See section 6.2.3
2. The Path Code should be saved in the Reader in a SC4Path-file (which is part of the DAT-file you've put your puzzle piece in) with the corresponding IID of the specific puzzle piece tile. One SC4Path-file refers to one tile of your puzzle piece. See section 6.4.4

Best,
Maarten
Lurk mode: ACTIVE

Shadow Assassin

Quote
On the webtool, select Resource Key Type 0 (one model) instead of the default Resource Key Type 3 (one model per zoom--5 total per tile).  While Resource Key Type 3 is standard for most NAM puzzle pieces nowadays for cosmetic reasons, choosing Resource Key Type 0 at this point will actually save work.

Instead of having to correct 5 S3D models for every tile of your puzzle piece over to the new settings, you can simply fix 1 per tile, and convert the Type 0 setup to a Type 3, by copying the S3D over to the other zoom levels (changing just the Mat instance to reflect the different textures for each zoom, rather than fiddling with 4 dropdown boxes at the bottom of each Mat instance), and switch the exemplar over from Resource Key Type 0 to 3, referencing the new S3Ds you created with the correct settings.

You probably don't even need to convert them to Type 3. They look just as good w/ Type 0 settings.
New Horizons Productions
Berethor ♦ beskhu3epnm ♦ blade2k5 ♦ dedgren ♦ dmscopio ♦ Ennedi
emilin ♦ Heblem ♦ jplumbley ♦ moganite ♦ M4346 ♦ papab2000
Shadow Assassin ♦ Tarkus ♦ wouanagaine
See my uploads on the LEX!

Tarkus

Quote from: Shadow Assassin on August 31, 2011, 08:17:05 PM
You probably don't even need to convert them to Type 3. They look just as good w/ Type 0 settings.

Yeah, with the proper settings, the Type 3 doesn't really make that much more improvement.

-Alex

ivo_su

If I understood correctly it should IID of each texture to affect RUL'0 code puzzle piece, right? Then how to make a puzzle piece after 0х5xxxxx are reserved for NAM

MandelSoft

We don't. We have a big enough range to assign IDs to. It's not like it's technically impossible to assign IIDs for NAM content outside the 0x5###-range, but due to possible conflicts (for instance, the 0x0E##-range was already occupied by Maxis Farm props), we just keep to our own range...
Lurk mode: ACTIVE

Indiana Joe

Please excuse my thread necromancy... :-[

So I'm missing something in the part where you just delete the S3Ds, Paths, and Exemplars of the tiles you don't need.  This still leaves those tiles in the preview model.  I can't figure out how to remove them from there.

Tarkus

The easiest way to do it would be just to find out which model group they belong, and delete the appropriate entries from the Anim tab.  If you want to be really thorough, you could also delete the appropriate entries for the model group in the Prim, Indx, and Vert tabs.

-Alex

noahclem

Sorry to drag this thread back from the dead yet again but it would still seem the best place for my question.

I've been working on my first puzzle piece today but am running in to trouble because all of jmvl's old programs seem to be missing and I'm not sure how to generate the effect dirs, exemplars, Ltexts, or previews. Basically I've just got the textures, S3Ds, and paths (for the RHW6S-OWR4 transition). Can someone point me in the direction of an alternate method or an old copy of the tools?

memo

Sere here for a link to redlotus' iconic interchange tutorial which explains those steps in detail. You don't need to read all of it – only the parts you are interested in.

Themistokles

This is a great tutorial... but sadly the Puzzle Piece Maker has left the Web! :crytissue: Wayback only lets me see it, not use it. How do I make the files I need now?
Come join me on a hike to St Edmea!

Latest update: 7

"In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy." - John Sawhill

mgb204

There is no replacement for that that I know of...

In general you should copy existing EffDir files and modify them for your new pieces.

Themistokles

Thank you mgb! What EffDir file would be a suitable template? (I have tried looking at the avenue roundabouts, but they're awfully complex...)

Also, how could I create S3D files for the preview models, without using gmax or the like? Do they "create themselves" when I edit the hex numbers for the preview models (as Tarkus described here; unfortunately I can't see which number is circled in red)?

Could I maybe skip the preview model altogether when making just a rough first test?
Come join me on a hike to St Edmea!

Latest update: 7

"In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy." - John Sawhill