Making Models for Transit Networks: Some General Specifications

[mtg]

this should be right! shouldn't it?




but it isn't 

[Korot]

You did press the save button? That would be the only thing I can think of, other than not having the latest NAM.

Regards,
Korot

[mtg]

Yep latest NAM july 2009, and yes I did save the file.

[Jonathan]

Yes that is correct:
Ok remove the dat you have created:
And put the one attached in it's place (note the model won't have any textures)


Also make sure you don't save the dat while the game is running/open.

[mtg]

ah guys I think I have a problem!

[Korot]

Yep, that's a problem. You did put the file in the zzzz folder, right? I also suggest a re-install of the NAM, just to be sure.

Regards,
Korot

[Jonathan]

ok....
Stupid question, are you sure that's your plugins folder?

Jonathan

[mtg]

ok....
Stupid question, are you sure that's your plugins folder?

Jonathan

Does it have to be in my plugins folder? I could have thought of that my self!!

Just kidding yes it is in my Pluginsfolder lol

[Jonathan]

Try zooming in to the closest zoom?

[mtg]

can't get any closer

[Jonathan]

ok put this dat in the same folder as the test dek one. And drag some road. the Straight should turn into STR.

Jonathan

[mtg]

well something works right! 



have you found the answer doctor Jonathan?

[Jonathan]

ok this is now even weirder.
I guess the picture of the MIS not working was using the dat I attached?


Try removing the Road STR dat.
Then in the test dek dat change the IID of the exemplar to 00004b00 (the straight road IID)
and go in game and drag road again.

[mtg]

No model is showing, BUT there is something odd. as you can see the road is a bit bended! the terrain is completely flat.

[Korot]

That's probably just a texture glitch, nothing to worry about. I suggest to Warrior to make the .dat wherein the exemplar IID is 0x00004b00, just to see if the problem doesn't lay with your version of the reader.

Regards,
Korot

[Jonathan]

That glitch you see has happened since maxis released the game. It is because the double yellow line on the road is not exactly in the middle of the texture, it is off by 1 pixel (and it cant be corrected without redoing every road texture)

Just realised you also have to change the GID of the exemplar to the one which works with roads.
change the GID of the exemplar to: 2821ED93
Jonathan

[mtg]

I changed it to this with the result of "0" again

[mtg]

ok for some odd reason (probably me) I can't attach my model to the end of MIS, well I didn't planned to get it like that any way. What i did want to do is build a ramp! how should I get all my models together as a ramp in Game?

[mtg]

OK some analysing, please correct me if I'm wrong, and if you can fill in the blanks 

TID tells the game what kind of file it is like FSH, S3D, exemplar and so on, so if I'm not mistaking

S3D file TID should always be 5ad0e817
FSH file TID should always be 7ab50e44
DIR file TID should always be e86b1eef
exemplar file TID should always be 6534284a

GID are not realy clear to me yet

S3d file GID should be ??
FSH file GID should always be "random"
Dir file GID should be ??
Exemplar file GID should be ??

IID are the unique number to well every file, i think? so every IID can be a random number as-long as it's unique?

Location is still a big mystery for me, don't know what it does or what it's good for?

In the exemplar file
ParentCohort should all ways be all zeros.
Exemplar type don't know what it does really
Exemplar name will give it a name I think but where when and how I don't have a clue
RKT is to witch S3D file the exemplar file is referring to, so it should have the same TGI's written there.
What RKT 0, 1, 2 and so one do, don't know?

Some thing I also cant find anywhere is how can I put the pieces of my puzzle piece together?

[Jonathan]

You've got the TIDs correct.

GIDs though:
S3D file GID (For network models) are badb57f1
FSH file GID (for textures that are applied to network models)
DIR file GID: There is only one type of DIR file. But as these are created automatically you just ignore these files (but the GID of these are the same as their TID if you want to know)
Exemplar GID should be: A8434037

You have the IIDs correct, just want to add that they only are unique if you do not want to replace something previously added to the game, example if you wanted to replace the road texture which IID is 00004b00. You would make a FSH which also has an IID of 00004b00.

Generally the IID uniqueness RUL applies within the same file types.
For example you can have an exemplar with the same IID as a S3D and there won't be a problem (however this is not always the case)

If you mean location as the column called location in the reader. Then that is not really needed (only if you want to understand the format of DAT files) Basically all it is the location of the bytes which make up the file inside the dat file.

By network models I mean models that are true 3D, and are not BATs.
The words model and S3D are generally interchangeable.
As are the words FSH and Texture


Exemplar type is just so in the reader you can all the exemplars of a type. It may have an effect in game, so just fill it out anyway.

Exemplar name does not have an effect in game, it used to identify the exemplar easily. If you don't fill this out then it will become difficult later on.

RTKs:
RTK 0 specifies one model for all wealth/rotations/zooms.
RTK 3 specifies a model for each zoom. So it will have 7 reps/values. the first 2 being the the TID and GID of all models, then the 3rd rep/value being the IID of the model which is shown at the furthest out zoom, to the last rep/value which is the IID of the model shown in the closest zoom.

The other RTKs do similar things for wealth and rotations.

To put together the puzzle piece you will need to do RULs, I will attempt to explain this later when I get back in front of my PC.

But if I still haven't explain TGIs clearly just ask

Jonathan