the Living Mall

[jigsaw]

i was snooping around my program files folder, and realised that the 'living mall' Plop LM lives in the Sku1 folder. looking at it in the SC4tool, it has a different look to it than other plops, it has a gazillion language options etc.

how does it appear in game from outside the plugins folder?

can we use the Sku folder as another plugins folder?

if no, what is so special about the Living mall?

[Andreas]

It is installed via the regular SC4 installation, but the internal structure is like the Maxis landmarks that are available for download. Maybe it was planned to include special landmarks for different regions (America, Europe, Asia,...) -  hence the various "SKU" folders (the SC4 patches are also named like this; SKU1 is America, SKU2 is Europe etc.) - but they were not ready when the game was released, so they simply included the Living Mall in all editions via the installer on the CD.

[RippleJet]

it has a gazillion language options etc.

Just like all ordinary official landmark by Maxis, the Living Mall is multilingual.
Read more about that in LTEXT - Language Text Files (How to make multilingual buildings and queries)

[jigsaw]

but can the Sku folders be used as plugin folders?

[Andreas]

Well, put a file in there and see if it's loaded by the game...

[jigsaw]

IT WORKS! 

the Sku_data folder is another plugins folder!  did you all know that already?

so the game has 3 plugin folders!

[RippleJet]

Could you also test if any subfolder under Sku_data is a valid plugins folder?

so the game has 3 plugin folders!

There are in fact at least five...

• \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4
    - This is where e.g. the SimCity_x.dat files are loaded
• \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Language subfolder
    - the subfolder is based on the "Language" setting in the Registry
    - this is where SimCityLocal.dat (and an occasional splash screen) is loaded
• \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Sku_Data
    - and subfolder based on the "Region" setting in the Registry
• \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Plugins
    - The plugins folder for Maxis' official landmarks
• \My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins
    - The plugins folder for custom content

[jigsaw]

Could you also test if any subfolder under Sku_data is a valid plugins folder?

tested and confirmed. i added two folders, test 1 and test 2. i added particular plugins in one, same with the other. when i started the game, all plugins loaded as per norm. it appears to be acting just like the normal plugins folder.

[RippleJet]

I made some more testing myself to confirm the loading order.
The Sku_data is loaded after SimCityLocal.dat, but before the Programs Plugins folder.

I also noted that even subfolders in the language folder (e.g. English) are loaded:

• 1. \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4
      - This is where e.g. the SimCity_x.dat files are loaded
  

• 2. \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Language subfolder
      - the subfolder is based on the "Language" setting in the Registry
      - all subfolders are recursively loaded first
      - this is where SimCityLocal.dat (and an occasional splash screen) is loaded
  

• 3. \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Sku_Data
      - all subfolders are recursively loaded first
  

• 4. \Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Plugins
      - all subfolders are recursively loaded first
      - this is the plugins folder for Maxis' official landmarks
  

• 5. \My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins
      - all subfolders are recursively loaded first
      - this is the plugins folder for custom content

Within each folder and subfolder, files are loaded alphabetically,
first all files not having a dat extension, and last all *.dat files.