Disappearing Props

dahemac · March 01, 2009, 01:28:36 PM

I have all the dependencies from the LEX DVD. However I find that lots of lots are losing their props between sessions. For instance I plop the University or MAS71's walls and they look fine, with all their props. When I reopen the city later however the props have vanished and I am left with a kind of MT lot. This also happens with Avenue medians. When I place the Avenue, the median looks normal. Later even in the same gameing session, when I go back to them the median is blank. If I drag Avenue over the Avenue the median reappears. Any ideas?

RippleJet · March 01, 2009, 01:34:56 PM

Unfortunately it does sound a lot like the Prop Pox, which has been discussed a lot during the past 4 days.
You might want to read this thread: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7066.0

Pat · March 01, 2009, 01:37:10 PM

Dahemac if you could please post some pics so it might be confirmed if you might be a victim of the Prop Pox?

dahemac · March 01, 2009, 02:20:07 PM

Well . . . painfully obvious that something I pulled off the LEX DVD has caused Prop Pox. Aach, I wish I had noted when It started. lol

wouanagaine · March 01, 2009, 02:22:57 PM

Dahemac, it might well be BSC Mega prop pack 2 that Barby corrected last week after Bap discovery, ( ripplejet links ). The file has been update on the LEX

BarbyW · March 01, 2009, 02:24:08 PM

It could be BSC MEGA Props Misc Vol02 that caused the problem but I think you should read the extensive thread linked by Ripplejet above.

Diggis · March 01, 2009, 02:25:25 PM

Dahemac, if you read the first 4 posts of the thread from Bap that Ripplejet linked, you will see that the pox has shown now not because of something that you have recently installed, but because the city has reached a ciritical point for the save game. It could (and most likely was) be caused by anything that you have always had installed. Some of the files that are known to cause it are mentioned by Bap and others.

dahemac · March 01, 2009, 08:18:55 PM

I have read much of Bap's impressive article. Certainly It could be one of the files I have had from before. But there were never may of them and I have been trying to get rid of and replace the bits and pieces I had in there before because most of them I have found as part of some MEGA pack. I have been working on large-tile citys in a Paris map for months. I archived a large corresponding city I had been working onjust a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to start fresh with all the content I was picking off the DVD. The city I archived was larger than the affected one by quite a bit and without Prop Pox. So I have probably either installed a Prop pack with some problematic content.

All your help and advise is appreciated. I will follow up and report back with the results.

BarbyW · March 01, 2009, 11:47:44 PM

Dahemac, it would be helpful if you could look at the savegame at the Type ID 2977aa47. Post here the size of the savegame file and also the size of the 2977aa47 file.
Also post the same information for the city that you archived.

dahemac · March 02, 2009, 06:30:35 PM

I don't really understand how to look for the Type ID 2977aa47 or how to report its size. I am on a Mac so this may confuse the issue. The city map file I am having problems with is currently 37.3Mb. There is another city in my region that is 32.4Mb last saved February 10 and has no Prop Pox. The next smallest city, also saved on the 10th, is 29Mb with no Prop Pox. The next smallest city in the region is 14.2Mb. None of the citys saved more recently than the affected city show prop pox but they are all too small to have simptoms I think.

It looks like I trashed the archived city sometime in the last week while cleaning up. It was the same map tile from the same region much more developed than the affected city with a bigger population lots of high-density development and many more reward lots. I thought I was never going to revisit it.

A concern I have had before is that I think bsc_Essentials_OG.dat is in the plugins twice. It is on its own off the LEX DVD from the essentials folder but the Readme_BSC_Essentials.htm says it is included in the BSC_Essentials.dat.

RippleJet · March 02, 2009, 11:09:16 PM

Quote from: dahemac on March 02, 2009, 06:30:35 PM
I don't really understand how to look for the Type ID 2977aa47 or how to report its size.

Follow the tutorial posted here:
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7066.msg225648#msg225648

Quote from: dahemac on March 02, 2009, 06:30:35 PM
A concern I have had before is that I think bsc_Essentials_OG.dat is in the plugins twice. It is on its own off the LEX DVD from the essentials folder but the Readme_BSC_Essentials.htm says it is included in the BSC_Essentials.dat.

That's not really a concern, at least not regarding the Prop Pox.
In the latest version, bsc_Essentials_OG.dat is merged into BSC Essentials.dat
You should redownload it though, as the filename nowadays is without the underscore after BSC.

Several files, that were previously separate, have been merged into BSC Essentials.dat
After updating, you should remove all those you do not need anymore.

dahemac · March 03, 2009, 03:28:11 PM

As for the tutorial. I am on Mac OS X. Any idea what the OSX equivalent is to Reader?

As for bsc_Essentials_OG.dat.
Do I understand correctly that bsc_Essentials_OG.dat is included in the latest version of BSC Essentials.dat so I do not need bsc_Essentials_OG.dat in my plugins?
I have
BSC Essentials.dat; 2008/10/09, 01:25PM; 14.3Mb
BSC_Reward_essential.dat; 2008/10/09, 01:25PM; 16Kb

Does that look current?

I would like to again say thanks and that this community is one of the most helpful places I have ever been.

Here is a sample pic of my prop pox:

RippleJet · March 03, 2009, 03:36:19 PM

Quote from: dahemac on March 03, 2009, 03:28:11 PM
As for the tutorial. I am on Mac OS X. Any idea what the OSX equivalent is to Reader?

I think I'd better leave that question to be answered in your other thread in the Mac Help Request.

Quote from: dahemac on March 03, 2009, 03:28:11 PM
As for bsc_Essentials_OG.dat.
Do I understand correctly that bsc_Essentials_OG.dat is included in the latest version of BSC Essentials.dat so I do not need bsc_Essentials_OG.dat in my plugins?
I have
BSC Essentials.dat; 2008/10/09, 01:25PM; 14.3Mb
BSC_Reward_essential.dat; 2008/10/09, 01:25PM; 16Kb

Does that look current?

Yes, you can safely delete bsc_Essentials_OG.dat

Quote from: dahemac on March 03, 2009, 03:28:11 PM
Here is a sample pic of my prop pox:

No doubt about it. Prop pox does spread into Macs as well...

dahemac · March 03, 2009, 06:18:56 PM

OK! PEG_TrailPark-Engine_305a.dat seems likely to be the culprit in my case. They are lovely parks but I can do without them until someone releases an update. This would explain why my second and third largest cities have no Prop Pox. They are almost exclusively Rural and I did not use the TrailPark in them.

So, I have archived my current region and am going to rebuild the Prop Pox city from scratch and see what happens.

dahemac · March 07, 2009, 06:49:05 PM

I replaced BSC MEGA Props Misc Vol02 and removed PEG_TrailParks_305b.dat PEG_TrailPark-Engine_305a.dat and removed a couple of duplicate dependencies from my plugins. I have since built a large city tile to 29.3Mb with no sign of Prop Pox so far . . . but I am keeping a sceptical eye and will report if any props start to disappear.

Thanks again for all the great help.

callagrafx · March 09, 2009, 04:33:47 AM

It's very interesting to see that the Mac version suffers from this too....and thanks for the heads up regarding the Trail Parks.