Anatomy Of A Basic SC4 Building

[MrScott1964]

 So far, I've been learning about the tools I need for lot making. I feel I need to take a step backwards first and learn the anatomy of a basic building and it's files.

For example I'll use Simgoobers Elwood Apartment Tower. This building has 3 basic files.
.sc4lot file
.sc4desc file
.sc4model file

Can someone explain to me what each file is for?
Does every building need all three files to work?

[thingfishs]

well to get the ball rolling, the model file would be the building, the lot file is (as the name suggests) the lot, and the desc contains the various properties/values etc. As far as I'm aware all three are always needed, although sometimes they may all be compressed inside a dat)

[MrScott1964]

 I have noticed that there are some buildings that are missing the desc file. I'm still a little confused about that.

[CasperVg]

Some buildings, mainly ploppables, have the .sc4Desc file integrated into the .sc4Lot. So it's there, just not visible. The Lot Editor does this automatically for some reason.

[Andreas]

For any ploppables, the building exemplar file (which contains the properties of the building) is integrated into the lot file automatically once you create a lot. That means, any *.SC4Desc file that comes with a ploppable is useless and can be deleted right away. SC4PIM calls these superfluous files *.loosedesc, indicating that they are only needed to store the values temporarily, until a lot is created.

For growables, the *.SC4Desc files are usually separate, since one building exemplar file can be used for several lot files. As said before, some creators integrate the exemplar into the *.SC4Lot file if there's only one lot, so it won't clutter your plugins folder unneccessarily. *.dat files are usually collections of various buildings, props, or textures, but actually, it doesn't matter what file extension is used, as the game reads them all by default anyway. However, it might affect the loading order; IIRC, *.dat files are always loaded last, despite the otherwise alphabetic loading order.

If you look at any of those files with the Reader, you will see the true file structure, which might help in understanding how the game works. As said before, there is a building exemplar file that holds the properties of the building, then there is a lot exemplar file that holds the properties of a lot (such as the placement of the props and textures), a PNG file for the icon (in case of a ploppable), another PNG file with a preview of the lot (created by the Lot Editor), LTEXT files for lot names and descriptions, and most times, there's also a DIR file, which is simply an index of all compressed files inside a *.dat (or any of the other file types, which are, as I said, essentially the same internally).

The *.SC4Model file contains S3D files (the 3D models of the actual building), FSH files (the textures that are mapped on the 3D model), and some preview files as well. Then there are XML files, which contain information about the dimensions of a building, or a list of properties - those are used to hand over the data to the next program during the creation process. There might be UI files that contain custom queries, or WAV files that contain custom sounds, and there are probably LUA files that contain a reward script.

[RippleJet]

If you'd like some further reading, check out SC4 Container Files, Game Files and File Relations

[MrScott1964]

 Thanks everybody! I'm starting to see the big picture now. In the next few days I'm going to start to making basic lots with the default game props using the LE and PIM. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.