SC4 PIM extended AWOL

[evarburg]

Help ! I reinstalled SC4 after a general bork-out and it now works, but I needed to use SC4PIM to modify a lot's property ("Conditional Building = True" mut be (...) = false) ; the Reader won't do that, or I don't know how to do that with the Reader. Feel free to enlighten me !) Any which way, I need SC4 PIM to work. What happened ? Should I reinstall it too ?

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EDIT : Well, using the Reader to DELETE the property seems to work for what I want to do with the lot. Nevertheless, I need SC4PIM to work...

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EDIT : the lots work in-game but they produce a weird effect that I haven't ever seen : a blinking flashing kinda doubling of the clicked items on the menu, outside the menu (the icons show up correctly) ; hard to explain and hard to capture but here's what I managed to get :





Is it because I deleted the property, instead of changing its value ? Or what ?

[mgb204]

The conditional building property doesn't need to be present for all ploppables. But if you just want to edit a reward or other conditional building, in order to get it functioning later, you will need to add the property back. A simpler method is to double click the property, where you can edit it. 0x00 = False and 0x01 = True, but you can simply enter 0 or 1 and Reader will convert to the correct formatting for you.



As for PIM-X, I can really provide much advice without knowing what's wrong. Can you run PIM-X?, if so are you getting some error. Note that whilst PIM-X will show all of the properties of buildings and lots, you can edit very few of them using the application. So if the issue is simply that it wouldn't let you edit it, there is nothing actually wrong and that is completely normal.

[evarburg]

Phew, Thanks, Robin -- I just didn't know how to make true/false in the Reader. I will re-add the property !

As or SC4PIM, I open it and get this window :

[evarburg]

I AM FU... CURSED.

I am totally, utterly, and inexplicably (for me) cursed.

About six seeks ago I had this problem with SC4, which first I thought was with my plugins folder, then realized was with SC4, which led to reinstalling the thing ; which borked out several times and, Year's End looming closer, I got discouraged and decided to let it go for a while. Then a tech-savvy friend reinstalled SC4 for me (because my own install had failed again) and it worked, you all saw it, I posted pictures of the weird thingie happening when I plopped the lots I want to relot, IT WAS WORKING !!!

On MGB's wise advice, to clear the flashing blinking problem I told you about earlier, I re-added the Conditional Building property, duly changed for "False" for all lots, and re-opened SC4.

It demurred --direct CTD, not even the beginning of the process.

I took the lots out and opened again. And I got the exact same problem I had before the re-install, i.e.  the black window opens, then no EA image but the music starts, and still no images etc., and then nothing, just the black screen, and if I want to quit I must do a force-quit.

I took a deep breath and told myself that perhaps taking that Conditional Building property out and then putting it back with a different value had done something SC4 didn't like. I took the unmodified originals and put them back in.

OK, it works, EA, music, etc.. Immense relief.

So I change them by just editing the Conditional Building property to False this time. And open SC4.

BORK.

I shut down everything --Windows, Parallels, even my Mac. Start everything all over again. And SC4 with the originals lots.

BORK.

O....K.... SC4 with no plugins folder, then, afresh.

BORK.

At this point I am ready to commit seppuku with a plastic spoon.

Is it possible that the weird flashing blinking thingie that happened when I plopped the changed lots the very first time (and about which I posted my initial post) has somehow corrupted my SC4 program ? And that I must reinstall. Again ?

[Wiimeiser]

Check the date the executable was modified, and any other install files.

[Andreas]

Alas, it's very hard to tell what went wrong from the distance, but somehow, I start wondering if there's something that corrupts your files when saving. This can be a bad RAM module, or a broken hard drive.

Unfortunately, I know virtually nothing about Mac hardware and software, so you might reach out to your friend if he could check your hardware (and if that isn't possible to do yourself, have an Apple store/retailer checking it).

I cannot tell if any of the SC4 modding tools won't work properly with Parallels, or if the game itself doesn't like your Windows setup, but something like that might be the culprit after all.

[evarburg]

.....

But it has worked perfectly for several years ! I haven't updated anything on my Mac that might () have impacted the partition !

And wouldn't a broken hard drive or bad RAM module also impact other stuff on my computer or partition ? On the partition --except for SC4 PIM, which I haven't reinstalled yet, having had that enormous span thrown in the works right now (again!) -- all the other SC4 tools work well. And Mac doesn't seem to be having a nervous breakdown.

But, OK, and thank you, for the advice. I'll try and check my hardware -- more likely have it checked.

But first I'm gonna try reinstalling SC4. If the problem persists, then I'll go to STEAM and get SC4 from there, and see if the problem persists. Then hardware check.

(where is that plastic spoon.... ? But seriously I'm quite despondent right now.)

[Andreas]

Well, your Mac might work fine, but it's better to rule out all potential problems. If there's memory corruption of some kind, it might stay undetected for quite some time, as other programs seem to work fine. Windows keeps a large log of all failures (fatal and not fatal ones), so a pro might be able to find some hints in the Event Viewer, and I suppose MacOS has a similar tool that can be accessed by someone who has deeper knowledge. If reinstalling "magically" fixes the problem, then it might be hardware-related alright.

[mgb204]

As or SC4PIM, I open it and get this window

The error there literally translated is that a file is not found, but since it references RegOpenKeyEx, a function used to read Registry entries, that does suggest a deeper problem somewhere. Likewise if SC4 is all screwy, perhaps the two issues are related in some way. Because one way or another that Registry Data has gone missing, which could simply mean it's corrupted. When you are playing whack-a-mole with installing things to make them work, then finding them broken again, I agree looking at the Hard Drive is probably a good idea.

In any case, one advantage of your Mac is that it most likely has a built-in diagnostics tool, which can at least do some basic checks for problems. See this link (Apple Support) for how to run that. Note the instructions are different from pre 2013 machines, but a link is provided on that page.

Hard Drives don't last forever, in fact the larger they get, the less reliable I have found them to be. Not to mention, the #1 enemy of a HDD is being knocked or dropped whilst it's on. This means laptops are particularly susceptible to damage, especially if you move it about whilst it's running. The way HDDs work, you have various "sectors" storing data, but if one is bad, the machine tries to ignore it and use other sectors instead. There is a tolerance for how many bad/broken sectors before you should replace a disk. In any case, if a sector containing data is bad, the data that was there will become unreadable. This may explain the weirdness you are seeing, because most of the disk could be fine, but more and more sectors are going bad as it fails. Again, there are utilities to test hard drives thoroughly and report any problems. However, using them stresses your drive, so if there is reason to suspect it's failing, you should make a copy of all important data BEFORE you run such a test. Because a dying HDD (not that I'm saying it is), has a finite life left before it's kaput. So it makes sense to prioritise. Sometimes a disk dying makes strange or louder than usual noises, but that's not always the case.

Honestly, if you are totally stuck, speak to a tech-savvy friend, who can likely check the drive for you. If it needs replacement, depending on the age/model of your Mac, that could be a real PITA. The last thing you want, unless you are made of money, is to have to pay Apple to replace it.

[evarburg]

(...)
Honestly, if you are totally stuck, speak to a tech-savvy friend, who can likely check the drive for you. If it needs replacement, depending on the age/model of your Mac, that could be a real PITA. The last thing you want, unless you are made of money, is to have to pay Apple to replace it.

Thanks robin. We haven't tried to isntall via STEAM yet, will do that this week-end (and the tech-savvy friend should come and have a look also.) My MAC is not a laptop, so the HD has not been dropped or anything. But it is not getting any younger, indeed. All my SC4 stuff, however (but not the Windows partition, of course) is on a separate HD.

I'm gonna make copies of everything, and we'll go from there.

So I assume it's adios for a little while, companeros (except for the uploads of my MayorDiaries...) 

Thanks, everyone !

[mgb204]

Just one thing re: SC4 PIM, take a look at this thread/reply from earlier.

Exactly the same error message and the cause there was a lack of permissions. Solved by right clicking the shortcut and selecting Run as Administrator.

[evarburg]

Noted. But SC4PIM won't work without SC4 working, right ? (Like DataNode and the L.E. )

[mgb204]

There is no reason why they shouldn't, since they are just standalone applications. If something else is broken, such as the data they read, all bets are off though.

[evarburg]

There is no reason why they shouldn't, since they are just standalone applications. If something else is broken, such as the data they read, all bets are off though.

Of course, and yes, alas. (Waiting for my tech-savvy friend this afternoon... fingers crossed.)