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iLives Reader 1.x Official support thread

Started by ilive, March 16, 2010, 08:37:56 AM

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mgb204

Every copy of SimCity 4 must have a SimCityLocale.DAT file as part of it's installation. Look in the root of the installation folder for a subfolder named after a language, typically just "English". You shouldn't need to move/copy any files, just make a note of the location, then tell iLives Reader where it is. Do this in the Options/Options menu.

If all else fails, get Windows to search for the file name for you.

Tropod

For anyone interested, posting update to ilive's reader.

Before downloading this please understand following & notes;
-This should be considered an Alpha/Beta release because;
-Lot of code has been adjusted to move towards Unicode, which is still incomplete, & build on vs2019 on Windows10, so many things may be broken.
-Consider use of this at your own risk & possible risk of file corruption/loss.
-Bugs/Issues will exist & items may be broken that I have no idea about.
-Right now main focus is on getting this stable. This version does not address/fix any bugs since last version & in fact may introduce new ones.

If you're happy being crash test dummy, then please continue;
-Make sure you back up any work.
-Currently there is no installer as it's been removed, just download & run application.
-You may need to install other MS items.
-Windows XP will no longer be supported.
-For now it will continue to be 32bit version.
-For reference this was compiled with visual studio 2019, toolset v142, Windows SDK 10.0.17134.0.

Happy to post source code & provide instructions to build if anyone's interested, as it was a real pain to get it to compile.

version 1.5.5 Unzip & run (you may need to click Open with & "download");
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxatcsp416emn39/Ilives%20Reader_v155_Release.zip?dl=0

Barroco Hispano

#262
@tropod Do you know if it is possible to make simcity 4 read gray pixels as transparency without generating graphic problems?



I found a solution to partially solve the problem:





- Actually it is not necessary to disable backface culling





But...



Barroco Hispano

Tropod

My first thoughts are that there should be a way to fix this. Problem is knowing how, as I've been out of the game for quite some time.

Apart from mats settings 2 main things come to mind that may be causing this;
LOD.
Index/Vertices/UV being inverted. I recall regularly having to flip UV values as they were often backwards for things I'd be doing.
The mats settings are only part of the equation.

If you'd like to upload that somewhere (with dependencies) & I can have a look, can't make any promises though  :thumbsup:.

Barroco Hispano

I was doing several tests and did not get any errors  ???



This is how it looks in the lot editor:



But:



You can download the files here (They have no dependencies):

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AizKPlOWj9nmgTXT0cd3IBSNUOyi?e=alhmP2




Barroco Hispano

Tropod

How were these made? Because it's most definitely issue with model settings, not the textures. Many games often use an obscure color for transparency, like magenta for example, as it's not actually used in game.

After having a look & fiddle with this the settings are not uniformed with the different models, which explains why there's inconsistencies.
Before & after & settings. I haven't checked for every zoom & rotation, but you can see the difference.







Land ahoy  :laugh:.

Don't use Profile or Apply Profile settings on SC4Reader (as pictured), as I've just discovered another bug whilst doing this :'( which I'll fix & post updated version soon.

Kitsune

Is there a way to edit the name value field? As you can see



I need to re-sequential the name value for the unknown field after removing some props. I normally will load the file into PIM to do it, however when its a T21 it gets to be bit tortuous.
~ NAM Team Member

mgb204

Quote from: Kitsune on October 13, 2019, 07:40:02 AM
I need to re-sequential the name value for the unknown field after removing some props. I normally will load the file into PIM to do it, however when its a T21 it gets to be bit tortuous.

Right click in the T21 (or LotConfig) Exemplar and select "Reindex LotConfig", which should set the IDs straight.

Kitsune

Quote from: mgb204 on October 13, 2019, 12:07:02 PM
Quote from: Kitsune on October 13, 2019, 07:40:02 AM
I need to re-sequential the name value for the unknown field after removing some props. I normally will load the file into PIM to do it, however when its a T21 it gets to be bit tortuous.

Right click in the T21 (or LotConfig) Exemplar and select "Reindex LotConfig", which should set the IDs straight.

Thank You ... you learn something new everyday :)
~ NAM Team Member

Tyberius06

Hi Tropod!

I would like to report a bug with the latest v1.55 version of the iLive Reader. The Export as PNG option on the texture FSHs doesn't seem to work anymore.

- Tyberius
You may find updates about my ongoing projects into my development thread here at SimCity 4 Devotion: Tyberius Lotting Experiments
or over there on Simtropolis into the Tyberius (Heretic Projects) Lotting and Modding Experiments.
I'm also member of the STEX Custodian and working on different restoration projects on behalf of non-anymore-active custom content creators.
Current projects: WMP Restoration and SimCity Polska Restoration.
Member of the NAM Team and RTMT Team.

xxdita

Both versions of Reader have crapped out on me in the last few days.



Not sure how to fix it. I'm on Win10 if that matters.

callagrafx

Quote from: xxdita on April 09, 2020, 07:00:36 AM
Both versions of Reader have crapped out on me in the last few days.



Not sure how to fix it. I'm on Win10 if that matters.

Did you run it in compatibility mode, set for Windows 7 or XP?
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it

xxdita

It was working like 3 days ago, then blooey. I'm fairly useless without Reader.

I've tried compatibility mode for Win8, 7, XP SP2 and 3... uninstalled and reinstalled C++2010... uninstalled and reinstalled both versions of Reader... no difference.

crimadella

#273
Hello, I'm new here, or talking at least. I need some help if you don't mind, have a rather strange issue. I just started trying to Mod, I have iLives Reader 1.5.4, everything seems to work fine except for this one issue, I was browsing ScimCity_2.dat, trying to learn about water mods and managed to stumble upon the maxis water Fsh files, TGI = 7ab50e44  891b0e1a  09187300. When i first found it, the water was blue, i went to export as *.png then canceled, now all the water files, 09187300 through 09187304 all turned brown, even when i export them as *.png files, they remain brown. It's not affecting the game though, water is still original maxis blue. I had backups of all the SC4 *.dat files, I replaced SimCity_1.dat, SimCity_2.dat and SimCityLocale.dat with my backup copies, yet the water *.fsh files in SimCity_2.dat are still brown and the export brown. It seems to be some kind of bug, while I haven't checked every single fsh file, they seem to be the only ones affected.

I'm not sure why happend, it seems that they aren't actually brown because in game they are blue and replacing the *.dat files does nothing, exporting them they are just as brown as they display in the preview window in iLive. I figured that if I uninstalled iLives Reader then reinstall to reset everything back to default then that would fix the issue but the problem I'm encountering is something isn't getting completely removed when I uninstall the reader. While the contents of the iLives reader are all removed, some how when I reinstall it, even after a CPU restart, the iLives Reader has the same custom settings that I had setup, the black style & my 'Customized Quick Tool Access Toolbar'.

How is it managing to have the same customized settings after a complete removal and reinstall? is there a settings file that is being placed elsewhere? I need to get the settings completely removed to hopefully fix the issue. I know nothing about editing windows registry keys so I hope that is not where the settings are being preserved. What can I do? I had a project in mind and because my water files only appear brown, and can only be exported as brown, I can't achieve my goal. I'm completely new to Mods and Modding though I have had SC4 for a long time, possibly over 10 years, I just discovered Mods about a year ago. I made a nice slope mod, a rather unique one, so I want to keep the reader but need to get this issue resolved, it's a rather irritating issue that just bugs the hell out of me.

I'm not sure if I can open SimCity_2.dat with Go Fsh, I may try, I need to use another program to check and see if the files have been converted to brown for real or there is just a bug in iLive that is somehow saved in some settings. I didn't save over the SimCity *.dat files and even replacing them with my backups does not fix the issue. Wish I could check on them with another program but i'm not sure what I could use to do so, or if someone could send me a link to the 5 Maxis Water Textures, preferably in the compressed fsh file, I tried to find them on the internet but had no luck. Anyway, hopefully someone can help me with this issue.  Anyway, Any idea for the issue I'm having with iLives Reader turning my water brown, even on exports to png? Or how I can get all the setting changed, the setting information wiped to restore to default settings? And, if you happen to know, will the latest version of Go Fsh be able to handle opening SimCity_2.dat or will it lock my computer up?

EDIT: Ok, I nailed it down, it is the reader that is bugging out for just those 5 water files, and somehow it is remembering to display and export them as brown rather than blue. So I do need to know where I can delete all of my memory/settings so I can do a restore to default. I opened SimCity_2.Dat with Go Fsh, it took a minute to load it all up, or two, then they were also numbered differently so I had to find them by the TGI, extracted the 5 water *.Fsh and converted them into Alpha Bitmap and Bitmap's and confirmed that they are still in fact blue. So there is a bug in the iLives Reader that is making them 5 files brown, even when exporting to *.png, when I open them with MS Paint, the ones exported from iLives, they are brown, when I extract the same *.Fsh files with Go Fsh then convert them to Alpha *.bmp and Colored *.bmp, they are white (alpha) and blue (colored). So, I just need to know what I need to delete to wipe iLives and all associated settings files off my CPU and do a fresh install to get the default settings/memory, whatever, reset to default.

crimadella

#274
As for installing iLives Reader 1.5.4, there are two files with the download I got, setup.exe and iLives_Reader_Installer.exe (something like that), when running the setup.exe, I received the same error about the VB compatibility, I'm not going to downgrade my VB files, so after I canceled that one, I just clicked the iLives_Reader_Installer and it installed iLives without issue, none that I can find anyway, though I had to fix something to get it to work. My copy of SC4, Disc version, from 10 to 12 years ago, Deluxe version, the iLives Reader was failing to open SimCityLocal.Dat because the path was wrong, mine is in a .../English/SimCityLocal.dat, yet the path default setting for iLives Reader was set to .../English US/SimCityLocal.dat. Until i added that path i could not get the reader to open, i just got an error message when i tried to open it, "Cannot locate .../English US/SimCityLocal.dat then the program would close out. It took a few tries just to get to see that message, it was just flashing the error message, for a fraction of a second. So i added the path (.../English US/SimCityLocal.dat) and was finally able to open the Reader then change the location of SimCityLocal.dat in the options. Other than this one brown water issue, oddly on only those 5 *.fsh files, everything seems to work just fine. I never did anything with my VB version. I have Windows 7 but it is up to date and my VB version is newer. So, I don't think you have to do anything with your VB version, just run the installer, iLives_Reader_Installer.exe and leave the Setup.exe alone.

mgb204

Honestly, I've never personally had problems extracting files this way, but it doesn't sound like it's simple to fix. I'd therefore recommend using GoFSH, which is a dedicated tool for all your texturing needs. It's going to make it way easier for example to get the resulting images back as FSH inside a DAT with the correct IDs.

crimadella

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I've already just started using Go Fsh and have already successfully extracted the 5 water files from SimCity_2.dat, converted them to bitmap from Fsh, edited them and converted them back to Fsh and packed them back into a dat. Just making little changes and trying things out, I was trying to make more see through water at deeper depths but it seems impossible, the water Fsh, fresh out of SimCity_2.dat files don't actually have an alpha channel so I'm assuming the actual game engine extracts the white out of the water *.Fsh files to get that small percentage of depth, 25(meters?) digit depth before you can no longer see through the water(By the in-game TerrainQuery cheat). I've got one more attempt after this, going to make my own bit map with speckled water colored pixels in it to see if the game is actually extracting the white from the files itself. If that fails I imagine nothing can be done to make the water more transparent, so I'll just make it a custom color. It would be nice to know how to completely remove all settings files from iLives Reader so I have the option to restore it to default incase I run into anymore problems and need a reset to default. I uninstalled it like 5 times and every time I reinstall it and open it back up, I still have all the custom setup options, and it's in that file that's not getting removed that has saved the bug somehow. Those are the only files, the water Fsh files, that are displayed differently than they actually are. Before I selected 'export as *.png' then cancled, only on one of them, they all changed from blue to brown and from that point they will only display as brown and export as brown. Being able to remove all the stored settings files for the Reader would allow me to restore the settings to default by doing a complete removal and fresh install. There has to be a settings file or saved settings in something else that is not getting removed with a 'complete uninstall' for the reader to be able to remember my custom settings after a uninstall and reinstall. If someone knows where these settings are stored, please inform me. I will be using the Go Fsh program to edit textures and not try to export *.png files from iLive, I can just do that with Go Fsh. Thanks for trying to help, mostly, now, I just need to know how to wipe out all saved settings in the Reader, especially if I encounter future problem that managed to get saved somehow.

mgb204

Settings left behind when uninstalling applications is nothing new, for example SimCity 4 itself does this. The idea being, if you ever reinstall the app, this data won't have been totally lost. Of course, if you need that data gone, it's just a headache.

I suspect it's simply leaving config files or the like in the folder where iLives Reader is installed. If the install folder still resides after uninstalling, that's a pretty good sign this is where that data is held. The other options would be the AppData folder, which is where such apps should store such data, but I think Reader is too old to use this system folder. The last option is the Windows Registry, it's possible entries remain there pertaining to the settings.

Lastly, in case you never saw it, a thread where the whole water texture set was unravelled exists here. Also, Rivit (author of GoFSH), has been looking into how all the water textures interact.

crimadella

#278
Quote from: mgb204 on April 23, 2020, 11:09:29 AM
Honestly, I've never personally had problems extracting files this way, but it doesn't sound like it's simple to fix. I'd therefore recommend using GoFSH, which is a dedicated tool for all your texturing needs. It's going to make it way easier for example to get the resulting images back as FSH inside a DAT with the correct IDs.

Never mind, sorry, the bug ended up being me. The 5 brown water fsh files are 400 through 404, not 300 through 304. They are actually water pictures(or they look just like water but brown, same pattern when I zoom in, though when I change them to solid red, there is no effect that can be seen so I'm not sure what they do). The mix up came from me identifying them by the "num" rather than the TGI, I just didn't think hard enough and they are identical to the water fsh files, numbered almost identical, the 4 is the only different number. Maybe they are Alpha Channels? Their not black so probably not. Anyway, I'll find out what they do, just wanted to retract my reported bug. Though I did find one real bug, I'm sure you already know about it, I've seen it reported. Corrupt file from saving multiple times over one dat in one session.

Thanks for your help though!

crimadella

#279
Quote from: mgb204 on April 24, 2020, 05:56:26 AM

Lastly, in case you never saw it, a thread where the whole water texture set was unravelled exists here. Also, Rivit (author of GoFSH), has beenlooking into how all the water textures interact.

Ha, yes, actually I have read that, and something else that further expands upon that on simtropolis: Corina's Side Water.... down in its comment section.. I've got one more question, I've noticed from tutorials that the previous version(s) of iLives Reader had an option in the file menu, 'export all files decoded' for the current dat you have brought up, it's no longer there and I'm curious, is that the same as "save all files" in the menu that drops down when you right click on the file list within a dat?