Help using CAM for the first time

[karrottz]

I just downloaded the CAM starter packs in the main CAMeLot thread, and I have already grown some industrial CAMeLots, but all of them are in brown boxes. I'm assuming I lack all the models for each Lot. The rest of my CAM is working - my demand bar is different, and my city is growing in a more realistic way, my CAMeLots are appearing as brown boxes. I tried to look through the forums to find the models for the starter pack buildings, but I cannot find a solution yet. I have already downloaded BSC Essentials, if that makes a differences.
Could someone point me to where I can get the models for all 5 starter packs?

Please and thank you, and sorry to bother anyone!

[Aaron Graham]

It's seems you are missing some dependencies, if you download the rest of the dependencies you should not have a problem, you can check the read me, it should have a list of dependencies (That mean things the file need to be downloaded and installed in the plugins folder to work properly or to not have brown boxes.)

Can you post me a link of the building your having problems with so I can see what I can do?

[karrottz]

There's no readme file in the starter packs

All I did was run each installer application in the starter pack files, and then I downloaded BSC essentials. Is there something I missed that isn't giving me the models? As far as I can tell, the thread says that the buildings are in the starter pack files. The main dependency thread says it won't help get rid of black boxes.

[Aaron Graham]

Did you download it here? And are you talking about the University of Clayhurst - Starter Pack?

Is this is what your taking about?

http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2254

[karrottz]

No, I'm talking about the CAM starter packs. (The 5 links near the start of this thread) http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2039.0

[Aaron Graham]

Okay I see what your talking about, which did you download?

[karrottz]

All 5 of the links in the first post, which were,

          CAM Residentials BSC
          CAM Commercial Offices BSC
          CAM Commercial Services BSC
          CAM Industrials BSC
          CAM Stage 6 & 7 Farms BSC

I opened each RAR file and ran the installer inside.

[Aaron Graham]

What ever one you have downloaded you will have to download the original files to go with it, it's like a dependency. So if you have downloaded the CAM Residentials BSC scroll down to you see  Residential §, Residential §§, and Residential §§§. You may have to click on the link and once your there you will have to download from everyone of those links.  I hope you know what I mean.

So you have a lot of downloading to do.

[karrottz]

Alright, I understand now! I just didn't think they'd expect me to download all the links. Whatever, I guess it's worth it. Thanks for the help!

[Aaron Graham]

I think it's worth it, there's a lot of beautiful buildings here's to download, When I first started playing Sim City 4 I was downloading nearly everything on this site.

Do not forget dependencies, a lot of the building on this site have a lot of them, some you  may run in to again, put you will know if you have downloaded it already.

Enjoy the downloading. Have fun!!!

Aaron-

[karrottz]

Never mind, I realized it'll take me over an hour to download each of these files, and it's making my computer incredibly slow.

Do you know anywhere I can download a bunch of CAMeLots all at once without having to download 100s of seperate files?

[Tarkus]

There are other packs on the LEX with CAMeLots, that have much fewer dependencies involved than the "Starter Packs", and in fact, pretty much every building on the LEX is designed to work with CAM.  I'd try the SimGoober MegaPacks, the CARCH Mega Pack by cerulean (and some of his other lots), plus anything by nycc06, tag_one, jestarr and jmyers2043. 

Additionally, I should point out that the CAM will work out of the box without any additional custom content, as it includes modified versions of the game's original lots and buildings.

-Alex

[whatevermind]

As Aaron Graham said, you have a lot of downloading to do.  If you haven't already seen this thread, you can use it to track down each building and follow the links to the model file you need.  Some of these have already been grouped into multi-packs to speed things up - but it still amounts to a lot of files and a lot of time and patience and careful installation to get them all up and running.  Also, I think the starter packs do have readme's, though the links in them can be outdated.

Essentially, the CAM starter packs give you a bunch of lots - you still need to track down and download the accompanying models and props and textures individually.  It is typically recommended to do this in small chunks at a time, rather than do it all at once - though it seems like a lot of people (myself included) take the all at once approach.

As to finding a super-download with all the necessary files - nope.  A lot of it has to do with file size, or roughly 1+ GB if you take all the CAMeLots together, which is a massively huge download by SC4 standards.  Also, any such download would consistently become outdated as new lots are released, among other reasons why such a download hasn't been created by the CAM team.

Best advice is read the CAM Manual, and have a lot of patience - eventually you'll be able to get it all set up and running smoothly.

[Tomtetummetott]

trying to get this running the first time too ...
i have CAM, i have the starter packs, i'm trying to get every model ... sigh ...

two questions:
- Model downloads often contains droppable and growable buildings: do i need those files, or should i just take the model and texture files from those buildings (that would be the .sc4model and .dat?)
- There is a workforce bug fix for CAM around here - is it still needed/recommended to use it, or is it included if i downloaded just today (sept 2012)?

thanks for your help!

[jmyers2043]

... It is typically recommended to do this in small chunks at a time, rather than do it all at once - though it seems like a lot of people (myself included) take the all at once approach....

That was my approach. I was one of the CAM beta testers. But I deleted my skyscrapper folder when the CAM went public and started a new city and new region. Downloading only the Industrial CAMeLOTs. They will typically be the first CAMs to grow. I then downloaded some stage 9 and 10's when I saw my first stage 8 buildings grow, etc. That broke the download chore into smaller tasks.

- Model downloads often contains droppable and growable buildings: do i need those files, or should i just take the model and texture files from those buildings (that would be the .sc4model and .dat?)

1. - Suppose you download a CAMeLOT that has a dependency from other web sites. Keep the model. Delete the rest of the stuff that comes with it. Unless the other stuff are props and textures. Those will be kept.
2. - Suppose you download a CAMeLOT but you already have the building from another web site. Use the cleanitall file or manually do the same as above.
3. - Suppose you have a lot of stuff already from other web sites. Learn to use the XTool and turn them into CAMeLOTs. A couple or right clicks and the XTool checks capacity, consumption, and pollutions numbers. Two more right clicks and all the lots are changed to grow at the correct CAM levels. Click save a couple of times and you're done.
4. - The CAM is a different game play style from plops. The idea is to grow the Empire State building as a stage 14 rather than plopping.

- There is a workforce bug fix for CAM around here - is it still needed/recommended to use it, or is it included if i downloaded just today (sept 2012)?

The workforce bug fix is a manual one using the dat packer if you really want to solve the bug badly enough. It merges the CAM and the original Maxis SimCity_1.dat file together. Anyone can do it if I can    All humore aside, the process works but you'll need to back up stuff first, and be confident in your computer skills.

The better answer is that I currently have the CAM patch by Z installed. I've been using it on my test region of 2.5M and cities of 500K population with no ill effects. I've just (this week in fact) started using it with some preexisting rural regions in conjunction with Spa's rural road dilapidation mod. I know. No date - I think it will be sooner than later unless something drastic occurs.

- Jim

[FrankU]

Hmmm, Jim,
I thought CAM was jsut the download and a lot of new lots, but bugfixes, merging Simcity_1.dat with CAM and/or patches by Z?
I lost track here. What should we do to have a proper CAM installation? Is it time for a quick and simple tutorial with avaliable links? Or does that exist already?

Anyhow karrottz,
I have another tip:
CAMelots go up until stage 15. Especially the highest stages contain some real large models (I remember one tower being 25Mb) and they will grow after a very long time.
What I did was install all the lots, but not the Models. I kept the models in a separate folder out of my plugins. When a lot grows with a large brown box I query, find out what model I am missing, save the game, put the model in place and open the game again.
This way the pluginsfolder isn't larger than neccesasary.

Good luck!

[vortext]

The workforce bug fix is outlined here

[karrottz]

Alright, thanks for the tips everyone! What I'm doing is just downloading a few buildings each day, instead of all at once, so I can constantly change my city.

Although I seem to have run into another problem - And this one's pretty serious!

In my region, I have a low/med wealth city and a high wealth city. Everything is developing fine except the CO$$$ in the high wealth city. There's 24k+ demand (Double workforce bug, i'll be sure to fix it), but NO buildings are growing. I think I may have accidentally deleted every single normal CO$$$ building when deleting some CAMeLots. Is there a way to check if I really did deleted them, and if so, how do I get them back?

[jmyers2043]

In my region, I have a low/med wealth city and a high wealth city. Everything is developing fine except the CO$$$ in the high wealth city.

Remember that the CAM changes the rules of gameplay. It may take a few years for your city to adjust to the new set of capacities and demands. Also remember that all demand is regional. A low demand for something in one city may be caused by an overabundance of the same thing in a different city of your region. You may be up against a cap now. The scenario where CO will not grow until you plop a reward? Don't panic yet. I assume you backed up your region? Good. I'd play all the other cities and simply watch the demand bars for a few years so that all the cities contribute to the region using the same set of rules. Then go back to the city in question and try again.

I think I may have accidentally deleted every single normal CO$$$ building when deleting some CAMeLots.

Even Maxis has CO$$$ buildings that will grow even if you deleted all of the custom CO$$$'s. Those were certainly not deleted. I doubt that is the problem. The best way to give an opinion is to know something about your city. Please post of picture of the Census Repository query. There is a bunch of information that can be used to analyse a city.

http://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1831

Good Luck

- Jim

[karrottz]

Sorry, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to attach pictures, could you quickly explain how?

On a side note, I've been playing SC4 for a while now and I've had CO$$$ develop right away every time without CAM. Does CAM require a certain city size before developing any CO$$$? I'm confused.