Region Transport View Graphic

[SC4BOY]

In my fooling with my plugins folder.. which I do all the time.. hehe    I have apparently damaged, overlayed, or lost a needed graphic piece.

When I switch to "transport view" it looked like THIS

TRANSPORT MAP PROBLEM:


This started very recently.. I found that I had taken the "background .png" pics out, so that explains why I had "blue" backgrounds, but I can find no other items I have moved. I put those back in and it did not correct this Transport View problem.. it did "fix" the background color problem, naturally. (I don't delete, I move. So I should be able to find what's causing this. I can't find any issue.)

I recall that the NHP group used to have several members who were very knowledgable about the Region Views and graphics  and the "save process", I am hope one of you can give me some hints. If this is a bad place to post this, please move it to a better spot. Thanks

This is a "creeping problem". If I haven't opened and saved a city tile, it looks "normal". If you look closely, you can see that what is missing is the graphic that represents the "zoned areas" in the region view. It is only on the TRANSPORT view. All other views are normal and work fine.

If I open a new city tile, even if I make no changes, and re-save it... the problem will move to the new city tile on the region view. I can find no other problems with the game in any way, so I'm guessing its an altered, overlayed, or removed graphic file of some type

I'd appreciate it if anyone has any suggestions for me to try to track this issue down. Thanks.

[wouanagaine]

No idea but you may have downlaod a new transit map mod.

[jplumbley]

SC4BOY... I know you have been testing the Simulator I sent you (I know you havent said anything about this but,) my Simulator files only have the Traffic Simulator Exemplar in them.  So, this has no effect on anything else other than the Simulation of the game.

I am no expert on the Region Traffic View, but that to me doesnt look like you are missing something, it is showing your zones in a different color.  If you were missing something there would be no zones, or it would revert to the MAXIS colors.  Beyond that... I cannot help you than to say that I believe Wouanagaine is right you may have unknowingly installed a plugin with a different Regional Transport View.  I dont even recognize which one it is, so, it would be best to find out which one it is first.

[SC4BOY]

Wou- I have not installed any "region mods" such as census, textures, backgrounds, etc. So if something changed it, it was not by plan..

I have no "region wide" mods or reporting changes applied of any sort.. I don't even use the regional census.

Well thanks for taking a look and thinking about it 

JP- I was pretty sure it was not the plugin beta, that's why it wasn't mentioned.

Do you know what the "default maxis" texture would be? Would it be a black hole? or the "electric blue" i get now and then? I guess I was allowing for the fact that that yellow was a "default" of some sort. To me that yellow looks like the color for .,. well .. I can't remember .. but it seems that color of garrish yellow goes with something in the game..

[wouanagaine]

Maybe someone on the NAM team can help you ?

[beskhu3epnm]

I have no experience in this field... and upon taking inventory of the various files, I'm not even quite sure where the information/files pertaining to the display are stored...

NAM may be a better location for this? Unless Heblem or Shadow Assassin has any information...

[Shadow Assassin]

Turn UI Translucency back on in the Graphics settings.

That should fix your problem.

[SC4BOY]

Thanks kindly... I knew if I asked enough times, I'd find someone who knew!!

What else does that affect? How did you happen to learn about that effect? I can say that among the many very clever people I've asked about this, you're the first to know.. You win the "Trivial Details" award! 

I was completely stumped as no other thing in the game seemed to be affected (and normally I don't use the traffic view.. but had turned it on to help on some analysis for one of JP's threads) so I suppose I could have gone on in ignorance forever..   I was 99.9% sure that nothing I installed could have that affect, but I was pretty much at a loss.. haha.. thanks again..

[Shadow Assassin]

Not a problem.

The UI Translucency, for some reason affect how zones show up in region view. It also affects how the UI appears. You'll notice up the top of your image, the top menu bar background is missing, and the compass icon is completely opaque. With it on, the menu bar will appear because it's semi-transparent, and the compass icon would become semi-transparent. Basically, the UI translucency option is a Boolean value that determines if semi-transparency in the UI [and transport map] is allowed. It was a feature that was supposed to be used on graphics cards that did not support translucency [it's a non-issue nowadays unless you're running a really old computer for SC4 - graphics-card wise].

It's just a game option, no mods or anything.

[Andreas]

Heh, even my good old Matrox Millennium G450 supported UI transparency - so it must be a really old compatibility fix indeed (maybe intended for some "ancient" notebook graphics chips).

[Shadow Assassin]

Heh, even my good old Matrox Millennium G450 supported UI transparency - so it must be a really old compatibility fix indeed (maybe intended for some "ancient" notebook graphics chips).

It was also intended for the really old ATI cards, seeing as SC4 isn't particularly optimized for ATI cards. And also, it was useful in conserving system resources, as well. The game runs faster but ain't as pretty with it off.

[SC4BOY]

If it saves resources, ya might want to leave it off mostly.

Even though you get a warning somethiing like "UI Transparency will take effect only when you restart" it isn't exactly true. I can operate a city tile with it OFF, then turn it ON just before I "save and exit" and it works fine. At least with respect of not putting that ugly effect on the traffic view. As I mentioned, I don't notice anything that matters in the game with it off.

I'm something of a minimalist in terms of "pizzazz" so I leave a lot of stuff off for SC4. Its graphics kind of suck by todays standards, so why work the pc for what isn't there?   I'd rather have quick response and load/saves than to bother with some minor effect.

If I want to see the full thing, I can always turn it on and take a snapshot.. hehe