Props Not Saving!

[dsrwhat316]

After working for hours on this particular lot, I've run into a problem.



After hitting the "save" button, the work shown here was saved. I then added more props to the other side of the lot, completing it. The amount of props shown in the pic above is 433. I had previously made another lot that had 561 props.

After saving again, I exited the Lot Editor. I then re-opened it, and the props I added after the last save were missing. I then made the lot again, filling the lot with about 100 more props (still less than the 561 I had for a previous lot) and saved. To be safe, I also clicked "save as" and made a new file. I opened and close the LE again and the props still won't show.

I know there is a limit on the amount of props you can put on a lot, but I always thought it was a lot more than what I have here. Does anyone know why this is happening and what can be done to fix it? Any help or insight is greatly appreciated!

~ Dan

[DebussyMan]

There is indeed a limit, and I believe it includes both props and textures together, not sure how many is  it though.

[RippleJet]

The limit is 1,280 items, and that includes all you can place on the lot:

• The building itself (1 item)
• Base textures (240 items in your case)
• Overlay textures
• Props
• Flora
• Land tiles
• Water tiles
• Transit-enabled tiles

[dsrwhat316]

Thanks for the quick replies. I do have another question:

@ RippleJet: I found out how many "props" are used in the lot from the Plugin Manager. Does this value deal strictly with the props, or is it a total of all the objects that you listed? I'm still trying to determine if I have too many objects on the lot or not. If it doesn't, is there a simple way to tell how many objects there are on a lot (without counting all of them manually)?

~ Dan

[RippleJet]

@ RippleJet: I found out how many "props" are used in the lot from the Plugin Manager. Does this value deal strictly with the props, or is it a total of all the objects that you listed?

That would be only the props.

is there a simple way to tell how many objects there are on a lot (without counting all of them manually)?

Yes, open the lot's LotConfigurations Exemplar in Reader.
Find the property with a Name Value of 0x88EDC900 (LotConfigPropertyLotObject).

That is the first item that has been placed on the lot.
Each consecutive item will get a Name Value increased by 1 (LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData).

Subtracting the first Name Value from the Last Name Value +1 gives you the current number of items.
You may have to use Microsoft's calculator to make these hexadecimal calculations...

The maximum allowable Name Value for a LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData is 0x88EDCDFF.
Thus, the maximum number of items is 0x88EDCDFF +1 - 0x88EDC900 = 0x00000500 = 1,280.
If your lot currently has that many items (up to 0x88EDCDFF), then you've reached the limit.

[dsrwhat316]

Please bear with me, because I'm sort of new to the more complex features of the Reader

I have a screenshot of my lot in the Reader:



I highlighted the exemplar 0x88EDCDFF above. Now, does this mean that all the other objects listed (the ones below the highlighted line) were saved, but can't be shown due to the object limit being reached? Thanks for bearing with me 

~ Dan

[RippleJet]

I highlighted the exemplar 0x88EDCDFF above. Now, does this mean that all the other objects listed (the ones below the highlighted line) were saved, but can't be shown due to the object limit being reached?

Yes, those that appear after 0x88EDCDFF will not be considered at all.
Thus, you have clearly exceeded the limit of 1,280.

Thanks for bearing with me 

Dan, you've just managed to open the LotConfigurations exemplar without further explanation.
You have just also showed that you've managed to find the last item on your lot in that exemplar.
You apparently have more knowledge in using Reader than most lotters.

Those "Unknown" that have a first value (rep) of 0x00000001 are all props, so those that will go missing are indeed props.
Btw, they are listed as "Unknown" because of the properties.xml file being the one that DarkMatter made, and not the latest one that Tropod made.

[sithlrd98]

Yes, those that appear after 0x88EDCDFF will not be considered at all.
Thus, you have clearly exceeded the limit of 1,280.
Dan, you've just managed to open the LotConfigurations exemplar without further explanation.
You have just also showed that you've managed to find the last item on your lot in that exemplar.
You apparently have more knowledge in using Reader than most lotters.

You've also put more props and textures on one lot than most have in all of their down loadable lots!!!
Just kiddin, heck you've got so much creativity with your lots ,I'm surprised this hasn't happened to you before! Looking good at what I see in your LE pic.

Jayson

[dsrwhat316]

You've also put more props and textures on one lot than most have in all of their down loadable lots!!!

Well, considering the size of the lot, it wasn't impossible 

Thank you, Tage, for your explanations; they are greatly appreciated. I guess I'll have to be more "conservative" with this lot now 

~ Dan

[Swamper77]

Dan,

I'd recommend breaking the lot up into two pieces. It looks like you are using a lot of people props to simulate activity. There is a set of effects called "Randomwalk" in the LE. These spawn people and they walk around for a radius around the prop's location. You might try these instead of single people props scattered around.

-Swamper

[dsrwhat316]

Thanks, Swamper, for the suggestion 

I actually found out the reason why I was over the object limit. For some reason, I had multiple duplicates of certain overlay textures. When I was holding the "D" key down to add multiple overlays on a tile, I must've held either the D key or the mouse key too long and I had over 30 of the same texture on the same tile. I found this on about eight tiles. Eliminating the duplicates (30 times 8 objects = 240) enabled me to add more people and other props.

I was going to use the Randomwalk effect before, but I wanted to control my crowds more 

~ Dan

[wes.janson]

I'm glad I am not the only one who has that problem with mulitple overlays 

I always found that trying to add more than two overlays to a tile really caused the zoom function to lag, at least for me.
I also found that sometimes they don't show up the right way ingame sometimes, rarely, but enough that I've noticed it.

I really admire your ability to make suge large lots.
I find that I get lost in anything over 8x8