I've got a question about the install programs....

[c0rnh0li0]

OK....I'm not computer savvy, so bear w/me.

I downloaded a lot of custom content. In order to keep things organized & less confusing for myself, I created a separate master folder outside of the Maxis plugins folder for the .dat files. That way, I could keep up w/what's what & move items in & out as needed. (Example: No need to have a bunch of farm mods in a city I plan on making an urban downtown. No need for skyscrapers in a rural community.) When trying to install the CSX billboards into this master file, it wouldn't install to the proper place. I looked in the Maxis plugins & found it installed there. But not just the .dat file. I saw that a lot of the other files I had handled previously had installed new folders in the Maxis plugins folder. Most are readme & image files. But there are .dat files there as well that I have no idea where they came from or what they were for.

What happened? What'd I do wrong? If I didn't mess up, how do I prevent it from happening again? If I remove the readme's & images will those documents work properly?

Man, I hate having to go through all those folders to try & figure what those .dat files are for.

[c0rnh0li0]

Update: In case anyone wonders, the readme's & images do still work when removed from the plugins folder.

So don't worry about answering that question. I still want to know how the files automatically installed in the plugins folders instead of where I directed them.

[j-dub]

Ah yes, the great c0rnh0lio. Based on your method of play, its sounds like you may want to consider about obtaining and using the Plugin Manager for SimCity.

If I assume is correct, your saying that the CSX billboards only wanted to install to the Maxis install directory, rather then complying to install to the my documents/simcity 4/plugins directory instead? I am wondering if you could let this one slip, because number one, billboards usually fit anywhere, both in the burbs, or in the farmville. Since I do not believe I used CSX's billboard set before, they may have their reasons for installing it in the core Maxis install directory instead.

I have had to go through 3 installs over the last 5 or so years, Vista especially did not want to cooperate with altering stuff in the Maxis files, it would not even read Maxis plugins from Simcity.com after the patch, stuff like images, and text files generally are not a big deal, but dat files in the Maxis install directory you always have to proceed with caution. Vista was real anal about me taking stuff out of the Maxis install folder once it went in, including music files, and sometimes it would relocate the music files elsewhere where I could not find it, but still would play it in game, because of compatibility reasons. I never heard of plugins relocated for compatibility reasons, but weirder things have happened. However, the game will not run if you take the background png images out of the Maxis install, or if a custom background is the wrong dimension just by one pixel point, you can expect a crash. The game does seem to run without the intro.dat, and sound.dat

[c0rnh0li0]

I probably could "let it slip", but one of my concerns is some .dat files are outdated that are getting redirected. And w/my limited computer knowledge, I don't want to have conflicts that I can't find. When I played before, it was a real hassle trying to find out the reasons for brown boxes & the sources for crashes & other errors. Or too many items in the game menus.

I'm trying to do all the proper work beforehand this time around so that I can just play instead of getting frustrated trying to fix or adjust things.

[j-dub]

I have missing files in my game too, I lost all the SimCity.com files I used to have, but there is no way I am going to be able to register for more then a second time, however the game just informs me I have missing plugins in this situation, but will allow me to proceed without crashing. The only difference is I had got some sort of dat file to block the brownboxes from showing up, I just get a giant red/green flag instead.

Basically though, your going to have to list the suspected file names right here, right now, right in front of me, all of the weird stuff from the Maxis plugins section, so I can solve your case. You do not want to pull out SimCity required dat files though.

[c0rnh0li0]

I just moved the .dat files out & tried some detective work to figure out where they went. Some installed in 2 different locations somehow. I'm just going to have to hope for the best, I guess. I think I figured it out. The hardest were some from SimGoober that I think were Farm rewards.

[Lowkee33]

Custom content shouldn't install to your Maxis folder, certainly something to look out for.  The files SimCity uses are with .dat, .desc, .lot, and .model (with SC4 as a prefix after .dat).  So, you can take out any readmes, images, documents, other than the background images in the Maxis Plugin folder.

@J-Dub:  SimCity also doesn't need SimCity_3, 4, or 5 to load a blank map.  The only thing you need from SimCity_2 is the terrain textures, but if you are using a custom terrain mod then you don't need it.  Not that I recommend taking them out...

I am going to go out on a limb here.  The only load time crash is either because you have a custom terrain mod with out the dependencies, or with things that are modded wrong in the first place.  You should be able to load a city with any amount of development with a completely empty plugin folder.  SC4 crashes when you hover a puzzle piece over a TE lot, and when you query a building using a custom query and that query is not installed.  I would say that any other crashes are due to the way your computer and SimCity are interacting (hardware issues, too many individual files in your plugin folder).

[j-dub]

I am going to go out on a limb here.  The only load time crash is either because you have a custom terrain mod with out the dependencies, or with things that are modded wrong in the first place.  You should be able to load a city with any amount of development with a completely empty plugin folder.  SC4 crashes when you hover a puzzle piece over a TE lot, and when you query a building using a custom query and that query is not installed.  I would say that any other crashes are due to the way your computer and SimCity are interacting (hardware issues, too many individual files in your plugin folder).

Lowkee, respectfully speaking. Loading a developed city that never had any plugins from the start is one thing, but you made it sound like you could safely REload a city without ALL the plugins that used to be there from the last save, but this usually leads to undesirable game play results, because if the game is smart, it shows a warning pop-up that stuff will be incorrect. For example load a city without the NAM it used to have, it will lag because of missing paths.

But Lowkee makes a point, even before NAM came out, accidentally hovering a Maxis interchange over a Maxis Toll Booth, crash.

However any other crashes do not end there, conflicting .dat files do exist. Lets say, unintentionally installing 2 tree mods by 2 different authors, or over ride cheating SC4, by attempting to plop a custom building from the control-x command line, and it turns out that custom building does not have a lot, that is not something you want to learn the hard way. It is still rumored that if you earn past a trillion dollars or so, you crash, I never experienced that though.

[Lowkee33]

Sure.  I was just saying that the game wouldn't crash, not that you wouldn't be instantly trying to alt-tab out .

I don't know why multiple tree controllers would cause a crash.  I have had crashes that may have been because of it, but now that I know more, I don't really understand.

[c0rnh0li0]

My plan is to make folders for specific cities & have one universal folder. So things like NAM & CAM would always load up. But, say, cities that have no water, wouldn't have waterfront addons.