editing lots for water

[jmdude1]

hi all,
as seen in my pic, if i can get it to work, ive edited one of somys ship lots (actually ive just replaced his ship prop with pegs scow prop family) but i seem to get this ground/base texture. ive followed jeronij's tut. on removing base textures but i still get this problem. does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? ive been trying for a couple hours now with no luck.
ive also tried editing jeronij's cargo ship lots and also using other ship props (japanese cargo ships) and i get the same result, although its only 1 ground texture tile. 
also, this isnt the 'water graphics bug', ive tried that option already.

[sam]

Firstly you need to make the boat into a building, not a prop. I always use make it a park building, as they don't have problems with road access.

Secondly, you need to set the Foundation Threshold to 90, the Lot Elevation Change Maximum to 90 and the Lot Elevation Minimum Change to 0.

This should cause the building (boat) to float on top of the water and the lot base textures to sink to the bottom. (You can make the base textures invisible afterwards too if you want)

[jmdude1]

thanks sam, is there an easy way to create a building from a prop? and a prop family as well.  also, some of these props are in a .dat file too.

[sam]

If you still have the xml file, it should be easy enough (even in a .dat file there may still be the xml file). Just drop the .dat file containing the prop into your root plugins folder and use the Plugin Manager the normal way. What prop pack and prop name is it you are using?

Unfortunately you won't be able to use building families with ploppable lots. Converting the prop family to a building family is not difficult. Its just that ploppables can't use building families.

[dragonshardz]

what about making a floating lot? how do you do that?

[jmdude1]

the prop packs im looking at right now, are for pegs scows as shown above (PEG_CSK2_Scows_205.dat), pegs barges (PEG_Channel-barges_205a.dat). both of these dats also have 3 sets of times the prop is shown, ie. day, night, constant. i just need the constant one. im sure there are more packs but i cant remember them right now, im just trying to get it to work first.  im also using a japanese lot called 'cargo ship mississippi maru', its one of those cargo ships that has the water 'wake' showing, as if its moving. to start, ive opened the PIM and found the mississippi ship files but after that...im lost. hehe. ive never used the PIM before. thanks for the help.

edit: there is also this prop pack as well - pegs CDK3_trawlers_resource.dat

[sam]

Ok Pegs are going to be difficult because they don't have the xml file. It is possible to make a building exemplar manually for them, but its a bit tedious and detailed. I'll try to write up a little tutorial on floating boats for you using some of jeronij's models.

[jmdude1]

alright, that would be great sam. i appreciate this, maybe jeronij will want to add the tutorial to that section of the site too. you should let him know, im sure it would be useful to many people. 

[sam]

Ok here you go. This will work with any boat prop that you still have the xml file for (whether it is in a .sc4model file or merged into a .dat file). Models that do not have an xml file will need to have a suitable building exemplar made manually.

Edit: I've reposted this tutorial in the Tutorials section. You can find it here:

Making Lots that Float on Water

[RippleJet]

Great tutorial, Sam!

And it should definitely be in the tutorials section.
Do you want me to split the topic, or would you repost it?

[sam]

Thanks Ripplejet.

I've reposted it in the Lot Making tutorials section here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2443.msg73666#msg73666
Please feel free to move it if it should be in another section (I wasn't sure where it should go).

I deleted the above copy to save space.

[jmdude1]

thanks again for this great tutorial sam. ive succuessfully changed 4 ships already. do you know where i can find info about xml files?  i wouldnt mind trying that out to see if i can get that to work too. would the original creator have these files or is it easier to create my own?

edit: for those of you trying to use .dat files without an xml file check out this thread: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=1791.0
it worked for me using pegs scows, although the reader did freeze on me once. also, i used sam's park method instead of the LM method.