I tried to modify my first lot in PIM as I need to use three overlay textures. Made a basic one in Maxis LE, reopened it in PIM-LE and added the overlayers in the order they should show up. Placing it in the game the first time everything was OK, each zoom level displayed correctly. After reopening the game I face odd problems: overlay textures do not show up, from time to time even the base texture disappears. Any idea what happens here? ()what()
And another question: to avoided this waterbug effect of lots without basetextures, I removed themin PIM but still have the same effect. I supposed it could be avoided this way?
Thanks for any answer!
While it is possible to work around some limitations in the Maxis LE (you can't save lots without base texture, and when you place an overlay texture on top another, the first one disappears), PIM-X can't do any magic, alas. The "water bug" was introduced with SC4 Rush Hour/Deluxe, and unfortunately, Maxis never fixed it, so any lot without base texture will show the dreaded background image pattern once you switched in underground mode and back.
As for multiple overlay textures on the same tile, unfortunately, there is no property to tell the game which one is supposed to be on top. You can stack several of them onto each other in PIM-X, but the game will switch randomly between them. It's only possible to use several texture that don't overlap each other, so you can use one texture, say, in the left part of a tile, and another in the right part of that tile. In some cases, this works fine with the given textures, but in any other case, you need to combine them manuall and make a new texture yourself.
Hi!
One small correction. Waterbug only appears if there is no Base texture on the LOT, but there is overlay texture of any kind. If the lot doesn't contain either base or overlay textures just props or building, then the waterbug will NOT appear at all.
The rest is correct. I have experienced the overlapping random overlay issues myself as well while I was doing some lots 4-5 years ago.
- Tyberius
Thank you both for your quick reply! Seems I have to climb the next mountain %wrd
Tibi is right about the bug only being triggered by lots with overlay textures, naturally, but I was assuming Ralfger referred to his lots where he added those. :)
Andreas is right - the water bug appears because of the overlay textures in my lot.
One more question as I can't find the info in the PIM-documentation: Is there any limit to the lot's size or the number of props that can be placed similar to LE?
Ulrich
Hi!
I'm not sure about the LOT size, but I think PIM-X allows to create a lot with the maximum lenght/depth of 31 tiles. Although I think it can handle larger LOTs if those were edited for larger size with Reader for example. As for the prop extures etc, there is an item limit in place, the same as with the Maxis LE, around 1280 items (that means textures, props, building etc...). While Maxis LE would let you place whatever amount you want and uppon saving just randomly delete items (mostly props) above the limit, the SC4PIM-LE will warn you that you've reached the limit, and will not let you place an other prop or anything until you delete manually an other prop or item.
- Tyberius
The limit to the number of items, the combined total of Buildings, Props, Textures, Constraints (Land/Water) and Paths is something around 1200 if I recall. This is not a limitation of the applications used to create lots, but rather the ID system each item on a lot uses. If you use too many, it simply results in having insufficient IDs left (LotPropertyLotObject). If you make really large lots, the number of textures alone can be really limiting, where possible smaller modular lots would be the best workaround.
That's good to know before starting my lotting attempts with PIM-LE, thanks a lot! Better not to oversize the lot as I already did in LE :-[