• Welcome to SC4 Devotion Forum Archives.

What does SC4 tool do?

Started by StormVibrations, March 20, 2013, 05:20:33 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

StormVibrations

I managed to download it and install it.  First I tried it on an old XP laptop, but since that computer isn't where I have SimCity installed, I couldn't figure out what to do from there.  I managed to get it up and running on Windows 7 64 bit, although it is very slow.  If you click on Analysis, for example, you see the options there but if you click on one it takes forever to come up.

I downloaded net framework 1.1 or whatever from microsoft.  I replaced the exe with the patch that's in one of the pinned threads here.

I guess I should just be satisfied that it does work.

I have no idea what to do with this tool, though.  I wanted to change an old train station I found.  Its capacities are too low to use with CAM and NAM.  Either this tool won't do it or I just don't know how to do it.  Under "editors" you have all these options, and the only one that sounds to me like it would do what I want is "Exemplar Editor".  When I click on that it eventually comes up, so I select "open".  Eventually I get the train station open and I find "Transit Switch Traffic Capacity" and see its value but no way to change it.  I click on this, click on that, right click.  I don't know.

There seems to be a Youtube video on any topic but when I try to search google gets too smart for its own good and thinks I want to watch ancient photoshop cs4 tutorials.

I also tried to install the ilive reader or whatever it is, but that would not work so it's this or nothing.

I would owe much gratitude to anyone who can point me in the right direction to get me started.

Thank You.

Edit - Okay for some reason it finally started responding to a double-click, so I know how to change the capacity.  But if there's tutorial out there it would still be helpful.  This thing can apparently do lots of things, but I have no idea what some of these categories are.

Andreas

I'd suggest that you read the included readme file, it explains every tool inside the program.
Andreas

StormVibrations

Quote from: Andreas on March 21, 2013, 12:44:45 AM
I'd suggest that you read the included readme file, it explains every tool inside the program.

Well, yes.  I have read that a couple times.  I'm not sure I worded my question properly.  It's not so much the tools that have me confused, but I don't know what the different variables are.  I think I figured out how to make the train station I was talking about also accept buses, but the options there are a little weird and seeing it done with a tutorial would be nice.  The scanner says I have a bunch of things missing for Simgoober's farms but it just gives me numbers, not names, so I don't know what to do with that information.  I have on lot I'd like to change ground texture for but I'm not 100 percent sure how to do it and I don't want to mess something up.  A quick start guide particularly in video form would be more than helpful.  Eventually I'll figure it out.  Initially I was extremely confused because it wouldn't accept any input.  Restarting it seemed to fix that.

While you're here, do you know why it hangs up like it does?  I'm not a computer expert but what seems to be causing the problem is the computer drawing the shadows behind the dropdown menues.  I can see it drawing lines really slowly, and when it's done the program is speedy.  It's only when there's a dropdown menu but it is extremely slow.  I haven't timed it but the lag is easily a minute each time.  I disabled visual styles.

Thanks

Andreas

Ah, ok, then I misunderstood what you meant. In order to make the tool compatible with Vista or newer, you need to disable "Desktop composition" in the compatibility tab. It might be necessary to run SC4Tool as administrator and select WinXP in the compatibility tab, but for the graphics problem, "Desktop composition" seems to be the culprit.

As for the variables and values in the exemplar files and such, that's something you need to learn from reading the various tutorials and information in the forums and elsewhere. It's always a good idea to open other lots and compare the properties. Soon enough, you should get a grasp of the basic concept, which is vital for understanding how things work.

Naturally, the dependency scanner can only show that something is missing, but when it's missing, it does not know the name, since there is no database that connects the IDs of the individual props, textures and such with certain filenames. If you are missing dependencies, check the readme file of the lot in question, or ask the creator, if possible.
Andreas

StormVibrations

Thank you.  I've never had to use that checkbox before.  I was already running in XP compatibility mode and had turned visual styles off.  And run as administrator, too.  That's usually enough for me to run old software.  Anyway that definitely worked.  The program has gone from excruciatingly slow to very, very quick.  It's hard to learn software that keeps hanging up like that.  I'll figure it out now. 

My first project...

I have a train station I like, and it's a pretty big train station in the game yet it doesn't have a bus stop included.  Not realistic at all.  Going to try to figure out how to change that.  I think I may know how to do this already, but I haven't been able to find the most simple thing...for something like this, do I have to bulldoze all the train stations before moving replacing the old file with the edited one in my plugins, or is that not necessary for an adjustment like that?

Andreas

#5
As a general rule of thumb, it's always a good idea to remove any functional lots (such as stations, civic buildings etc.) before modifying any properties. In some cases, changes are simply not picked up, but you can also screw up your city completely, i. e. when the "phantom slider bug" hits, this is usually the case if you modify the capacity of buildings that have a slider in the query UI, since the selected values are stored in the city file. At worst, cities with modified buildings might crash to desktop as soon as you want to load them. I think you can edit the transit switch proerties without producing such bugs, but you have to bulldoze and replop the stations in order to make the new settings work at least. So I'd say better be save than sorry and do that before editing anything, or make a backup of your regions at least (and the original, unmodified lot, naturally - by default, SC4Tool makes a backup and names it "[lot filename].sav").
Andreas