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Prop Viewer

Started by Heides, February 01, 2011, 11:35:54 PM

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Heides

Greets.  I've searched high and low for a prop viewer and could not find anything that did the job.  It only takes 5secs to go down the list in LE, select one, plop on the lot, delete, open the list, and scroll down to the next, but by my calculations I'll be chugging prune juice and flirting with grandma in the tranquility of a retirement home before I finish.  I've read at least a couple of posts by vet modders indicating they didn't know what half the props were or that something existed.  It's hard to believe that in all the years nothing has come along to facilitate this.  I'm hoping it's included in some existing software, but if not then this is a request.

I would try making it myself, since file access and manipulation is not rocket science.  I would need to learn the SC4 file structures, and I only know how to work with AutoHotkey.  I'm only an amateur programmer but I think I could pull that off.  My obstacle is that I have no idea how to display 3D images and would probably need to use an external renderer.  It would take me a year to figure that out with no further utility for the knowledge.

I'm looking for something very minimal:
Open a directory or .dat file
Extract models
Choose to display Props, Flora, Texture, or Building
Ability to search selected model list
Cycle through the images with a simple click or by pressing Enter/Backspace like the Win Pic & Fax Viewer
Display filename and path of the displayed image at all times with ability to select/copy
Possible features: 90° rotate, zoom, save extracted model

If something like this exists please help me find it.  If it doesn't, is there anyone willing to make it?
Thanks!


EDIT- The iLives reader has something similar.  But for this purpose I think even the Maxis LE is better.  I don't think it can load all models from a selected directory or filter props vs flora vs textures vs building, the model name is not displayed in the list, the list search is in a separate window, and I can't seem to get it to work for model names, and the zoom resets with each file selected.  The Reader is very useful for all sorts of things, 95% of which I'm sure I'm not aware of, but it was built for those things (ie actually modding) and not for this simple task.

EDIT- Found it!  http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=21354
ST was down when I tried doing a google site: search earlier.  One person posted on the forum asking for it and there was a link. :)
Not a big deal not having search list feature with how it's set up. No zoom and black backgrounds make it hard to see sometimes, but gets the job done.  Thanks ilives!
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