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Xannepans creations

Started by xannepan, October 05, 2007, 06:52:11 AM

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Should the weather plugin include a version with destructive effects (e.g. associated with tornados and lightning)?

Yes
41 (57.7%)
No
30 (42.3%)

Total Members Voted: 71

Voting closed: January 26, 2013, 06:50:01 AM

ivo_su

Quote from: NCGAIO on January 29, 2013, 03:07:11 PM

Just to get this straight ... which means here the expression "true water - canals"


Canals are built at sea level?

This means that water is mod and it is a liquid, as in the original version of Max, not water props turned into pieces with the help of Lot editor or other program.

FrankU

Ha! Finally we can make real Dutch landscapes where the canals are on a higher level than the polders. Good for my Dutch theme! Thank you soooo much!

This is really a great development.

NCGAIO

 :) Thank you "ivo_su' ... it was really enlightening!

weixc812

Hi, Xannepan,
Maybe I'm just repeating, a little feedback of the Jupiter and the Aurora Mod. Two red circles on the ground appear when it's raining.(Just like the ones of a robot attack)  ()what() And they move as the cloud moves....

As to the Aurora mod, I type in the order you give us in Ctrl+X box, but no red circle appears. Then I put a lot in the approximate center of the map, nothing seems to appear.  &mmm So what's wrong with it? Where did I make mistakes?
Welcome to ALFERRID(UPDATE 5-District C)
And my other pics at SimCityChina:click here

xannepan

The red circle in the screencenter has a bug. I am working on a next version that won't need a lot to be placed in the center anymore.
The red circle for the rain are intentional. They will be removed in a full version.


Although I have succeeded in triggering effects via LUA scripts there is a setback that may make it all impossible after all. If have found no reference what so ever in the existing LUA scripts to have time triggers based on the 24hr game clock. Triggers on days, months and years are all there. For the aurora I need the 24 hr clock trigger though to sync sunset/rise moonrise/set effects....'

-Alex

weixc812

#1205
Thanks for your reply, Alex  ;D
Can't wait for the final version of Jupiter and Aurora Mod. You really make the game totally different, openning a new era for us.  :thumbsup:
Welcome to ALFERRID(UPDATE 5-District C)
And my other pics at SimCityChina:click here

xannepan

 :angrymore: :angrymore: :angrymore: :angrymore:
I can't believe there is no trigger functionality for the 24-hour clock in LUA.... now i can't sync with the game-clock

xannepan

#1207
A new version of AURORA is uploaded to the lex (bug fixes + some new features). Still in a Beta phase as it still requires the lot to be placed in the center of the city.

MOst important changes:
-CTRL+X "Effect jenx_screencenter" should now show the placement helper marker
-sync error with game clock during medium and fast game speed should be fixed
-introduced phases of the moon
-introduced a comet that appears in the sky at night (random chance)
-hopefully the aurora will now show up for everyone. It should be triggered between 22-23 h in january nights

ivo_su

Alex I still have problems with this mod. The effect shows relative center of the map but not exactly. It surrounds the four tiles, but which one is correct. Also, other issues arise.
- How much zoom, I need to look for the moon
- Does it matter which direction the compass is on my card
- Which side of the map will appear on the moon
Anyway, for now the effect is still not working for me unfortunately.

whatevermind

I tried out the Alpha 5 release of the Poseidon mod today, and I have to say that overall it is an improvement. Unfortunately many of the same bugs are present, even if they're not as easy to trigger as they were. Some comments on what I noticed:


  • The red locator beacon is great! For a final release I would keep it, but give it a less obvious color. Since the lot is underwater and/or invisible, you need the beacon to find it, but you don't necessarily want red circles in your pictures.
  • I know the three lots come with different strengths, but I could barely see any difference in the behavior of them. It could just be the cities I was testing them in, but the chance that any of the three would work and the effect it would have all seemed to be the same.
  • On that note, I couldn't get them always to work. I suspect this might be tied to the 'don't overflow the basin' changes you made, in that perhaps they have a height limitation and won't work in too shallow a valley? Or perhaps there's some other reason for them to only work some of the time. I found that sometimes a single lot filled the basin, other times I could place dozens and still not see anything. Sometimes the first lot or two or three would cause a very small amount of water to appear in part of the basin, and then a dozen more would do nothing until finally I had enough in the basin to simply flood the entire city. Chances of the basin filling as expected were better with deeper/steeper valleys, but even then on the same valley it could vary from one attempt to the next.
  • Tied into that, the overflow limitation works well, it was much harder to make the mod flood the city. Not impossible, and sometimes the first lot would do it, but it was generally harder to do.
  • The sparkles work great. I noticed they are cumulative with the more Poseidon lots you have in the city. I also noticed that the sparkles only seem to appear on sea level water. So if you have sea level water in a city with a bunch of these lots, your ocean will be all party time, and your high level lakes/rivers relatively placid. Either way it's a neat effect.
  • I took a more rigorous look at whether or not these lots were causing terrain changes this time around, and I can't find any definitive evidence that they do raise and/or lower terrain. However, there's no other way to explain some of the behavior I see with shifting land and buildings being permanently left up or down. It's not as extensive as the previous version, so there's much less damage from using these, but it is still there.
  • The first placement of a lot in the city seems to have the greatest impact on land shifts. It also sometimes has a big impact on moisture, causing a noticeable terrain texture shift throughout the city. This is really only visible on bare cities though.
  • The lots have amazing slope tolerance, in case you wanted to cover a mountain side in red beacons.  :P
  • The savegame and water pipe view bugs are less of a problem than they were. They seem to be most easily triggered after the lots have already flooded the city. However, on a few random occasions they happened at random. In general however, as long as the water remained in the rivers, these bugs rarely occurred.
  • I did have an instance where the lot actually took out a roadway, a very steep one, and it only happened once.
  • Any level of flooding seems to knock out power lines.   &Thk/(  But you can drag power lines through lightly flooded terrain to restore power.  ???

Overall, it's definitely more stable than the first release, with more predictable results. It still takes some trial and error to get the look you're after, and the side effects can be entertaining for sure. I think for sure I'll be able to get some great use out of this, and I hope maybe there's a way to work out some more of these bugs.

Outstanding mod, even if it is a little fussy.  &apls

xannepan

Quote from: ivo_su on February 01, 2013, 01:53:43 PM
Alex I still have problems with this mod. The effect shows relative center of the map but not exactly. It surrounds the four tiles, but which one is correct. Also, other issues arise.
- How much zoom, I need to look for the moon
- Does it matter which direction the compass is on my card
- Which side of the map will appear on the moon
Anyway, for now the effect is still not working for me unfortunately.

Ivo-su, you can place the lot anywhere in the inner circle of the marker. All the other questions are all answered in the readme. If you follow that in detail you shouldn't have any problems.
(If the lot is placed correctly (lot placement arrow pointing norht) the moon rises north, sets south, sun rises east, sets west. Moon appears only at night, sun only during daytime)


xannepan

#1211
Quote from: whatevermind on February 01, 2013, 07:47:32 PM
I tried out the Alpha 5 release of the Poseidon mod today, and I have to say that overall it is an improvement. Unfortunately many of the same bugs are present, even if they're not as easy to trigger as they were. ....
Outstanding mod, even if it is a little fussy.  &apls

Thanks again for testing whatevermind! In all honesty it was pure luck / perhaps a bit of intuition that the changes I made increased the stability. But there are just too many parameters in the effect dir that I do not understand. I am not sure if I'll ever be able to improve it any further (at least not without getting a trial&error burn out)

What do you think; Should I place this on the lexin this stage? Or is it to immature?
-alex

xannepan

I have updated JUPITER mod. Still a beta release but I don't think there is really much more that needs to be improved or can be improved.

Whats new in version Beta 2
-Fixed the bug that caused violent lightning at higher altitude maps.
-Partial solution for nights that became too dark during rain/snowstorms. If this happens lightning can be reset by toggling between day and back to night mode again. In this case unfortunately it is necessary that the weather lot has power.
-Minor tuning of the climate.
-Tornados are now optional.
-Removed all red circular markers that were left in for testing purposes
-Now <10% of all lightning strikes are destructive (applies to destructive version only).
-Minor bug fixes.

AngryBirdsFan436

Well, what I want for the next Jupiter release is a hurricane! If you want to know how a hurricane landfall feels like, strong winds, heavy rain, flooding, storm surge, etc. I want a scale from Tropical Storm (63–118 km/h), Cat 1 (119–153 km/h), Cat 2 (154–177 km/h), Cat 3 (178–208 km/h), Cat 4 (209–251 km/h) and Cat 5 (252 km/h and above). If it's impossible for it to be destructive, just make it an effect!
SC4 + NAM = 20% Cooler!

whatevermind

Quote from: xannepan on February 01, 2013, 10:50:19 PM
Should I place this on the lexin this stage? Or is it to immature?

First instinct is that it's not ready for a full release. It does work very well though, all things considered, and I'm sure there's a lot of people who would like to have it even if it is a bit buggy. You could maybe just pick up aesthetic changes (i.e. beacon color, menu icons, etc.) to pretty it up a little - and then offer it on the LEX as an "as is/no support/use at your own risk" sort of mod. Makes it easier for people to get but gets the point across to use it carefully.

Otherwise, just leaving it attached to the forum keeps the files available for anyone who wants it, which also works since people will still find it, and having to read through here will help make them aware of known issues they might have without having to try to condense it into a readme. I hate to say don't release it, but I keep thinking whether or not this would pass scrutineering in it's current stage, and I don't think it would, so perhaps just leaving it attached to the forum is the better option in the long run.

Quote from: xannepan on February 02, 2013, 06:45:14 AM
...In this case unfortunately it is necessary that the weather lot has power.
...Tornadoes are now optional.
Oh this crazy simworld! :D

Neofita

#1215
I installed the latest version JENX_JUPITER_BETA1 I have to go back to the previous.
After installing the new version come into play,I am looking for an icon JENX_JUPITER_BETA1 in the menu park.
I select weather lot to plop and at this point I have the game crash.
Previous version in my work normally.

I already know where the problem is or where I made mistake
I had installed JENXMODS_JUPITER_Weather_Controller_nondestructive and PLOP_1x1_JENX WEATHER CONTROLLER_7e032cdd.SC4Lot Remove all file and install JENXMODS_JUPITER_Weather_Controller_non_destructive_BETA_V2.dat and PLOP_1x1_JENX WEATHER CONTROLLER_NO_TORNADO_4596f3a6.SC4Lot This combination of files did the crash my game.
I reinstalled again and now I have these files JENXMODS_JUPITER_Weather_Controller_non_destructive_BETA_V2 and PLOP_1x1_JENX WEATHER CONTROLLER_7e032cdd.SC4Lot.
Now everything is ok.
Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for this mod :)

HurricaneMod10

I'm not sure that it will be look like a game_events.time.clock.hour = 24 (0)

Quote from: xannepan on January 31, 2013, 10:22:12 AM
:angrymore: :angrymore: :angrymore: :angrymore:
I can't believe there is no trigger functionality for the 24-hour clock in LUA.... now i can't sync with the game-clock

HurricaneMod10

I need to get a download with the full version on matlab but I can't be able to get a work on it.

Quote from: xannepan on January 25, 2013, 07:25:24 AM
Quote from: HurricaneMod10 on January 25, 2013, 07:18:17 AM

How can I open the Effect Dir Editor Script with the ilive reader?  %confuso

Currently there are no available editors for the effect dir. Ilive only allows to view it. I have created matlab scripts to read and write the effect dir, but editing is difficult and is done manually in matlab. I can share my matlab scripts but doubt it will be useful.

xannepan

Just to let you know: I have started releasing a first set of fauna effects on the lex. All animals can be placed in the game via a god menu animal brush or via a lot in the park menu. The releases will include animals left in the game by MAXIS, some of which have never been used, but also a set of completely new animals (such as the zebras and bengal tigers). More animals will follow soon!

NCGAIO

Quote from: xannepan on February 03, 2013, 10:37:02 AM
The releases will include animals left in the game by MAXIS, some of which have never been used ..



What are the models not used? Just curious as to whether any escaped me.


Good job of editing the textures original despite having been a little dark in the game for zebras. Still it's good to see that brought forward this idea.


Less problematic and more attractive.