[Ennedi]

Here we will help you to solve any problems related with terrain-related mods made by Silvio (Rayden), Chrisadams and me (Ennedi) and released as our common work. We will also present various tips and tricks and give you suggestions to help you in making beautiful SC4 landscapes.

Adam

[wes.janson]

I tried out the day ones and all I get is a black background.

Do the in game graphic settings affect this whatsoever?

[rushman5]

Yes, I got a black screen and sever graphical glitching. I am doing this the same as other backgrounds, but the ones in the pack don't work. In addition, the png files are 512x512, compared to Rush Hour's base 128x128.

[sithlrd98]

I have  download these from the LEX , and checked them against the ones from the
  earlier thread....these are the same ones and they do work. (presently using the 1024 versions)

All I can say is make sure that these are overwriting the originals in you Maxis / Plugins folder.

Jayson

[rushman5]

Perhaps I should include the fact that I am running an Ati gfx card under XP.  But still, I have never had problems with graphics before...

And yes, I am overwriting them, I used to have this other bright blue texture in the same spot.

[wouanagaine]

I've just looked at the files, and they are 512x512 whereas the original one are 128x128
It is known that in software mode, 512x512 pictures are not supported
Can you check if you're in software mode ?
The fact that SC4 is known to not be very friendly with ATI card can also be a cause

[Ennedi]

Thank you very much Stephane for your help! I was at work and I didn't see these posts earlier.

I tried out the day ones and all I get is a black background.

Do the in game graphic settings affect this whatsoever?

You get the black background if the game doesn't see any sky backgrounds. It can happen in several ways:
1. You removed Maxis backgrounds from Maxis Plugins folder, but didn't put any other textures at their place.
2. You removed Maxis background and installed the whole sky background folder from my set. Maxis Plugins folder doesn't read subfolders. I found it during testing and I was surpirised, I expected that it work as the My Docs Plugins folder. I warned users in the readme that my PNG files (Background3D0, ..., Background3D4) should be located directly in the root Maxis Plugins folder.
3. You removed Maxis backgrounds and installed new ones in the My Docs Plugins. In this case the game will not read them too.
So you should to remove Maxis backgrounds and place new ones at their place, they will work then.
Btw there is a readme n the day set, but I didn't add it to the night set (by mistake). I will fix it today, but basically the readme for both day and night set is the same.

The black sky background can be useful for somebody, so you can take it as a tip: remove Maxis background and don't replace them by anything else, the game will work but you sky will be black 

Graphic settings: I used HD textures in both mods: 512x512 for Day set, 1024x1024 for Night set. These are minimum sizes to achieve the satisfactory quality. But HD textures work good only in hardware mode. It was discussed in HD Props and HD Textures development threads in NAM Creations section.
What will you get in the software mode depends on your graphic card. I have NVidia GeForce 7900 GS, and HD textures appear for me - but they have much worse quality (loss of details, but no severe graphic glitches). It is possible you will get different results with other graphic cards, maybe some of them will not support larger textures at all - I don't know. Anyway there are two necessary condidions: proper installation and hardware mode game graphic setting.

I have  download these from the LEX , and checked them against the ones from the
  earlier thread....these are the same ones and they do work. (presently using the 1024 versions)

All I can say is make sure that these are overwriting the originals in you Maxis / Plugins folder.

Jayson

Yes, I changed day textures from 1024x1024 to 512x512, I tested them to find the minimum size at which the quality is enough good. I didn't notice any problems with game loading and running till this time, but I don't know what will happen if we will use more HD textures. We also want do have the zip file size as small as possible due to LEX uploading limitations.
Overwriting: Of course we can copy files to Maxis Plugins folder and overwrite existing Maxis textures, but it can lead to mistakes sometimes, so I suggest rather to remove Maxis textures first (and save them in another place to future use if you will get bored of custom sky backgrounds  )

Edit: As for game graphic settings - it is up to you what settings will you choose. Some people prefer software mode, Personally I use hardware mode because I have other problems when I switch to software mode: strange prop shadows (as I know it's a common problem) and very limited amount of automata. We discussed it many times with other players and game developers and most of them think that using software mode can cause many problems. There will be more and more HD textures in the game - they give us many new possibilities, some of them weren't discussed now  . So I'm afraid all of us will be forced to use hardware mode if we will want to use new textures, props and other stuff.

[Gaston]

I can't find the original background textures you talk about in the readme?     I have looked where you say but nothing.    Any suggestions?


---Gaston

[Ennedi]

I can't find the original background textures you talk about in the readme?     I have looked where you say but nothing.    Any suggestions?

---Gaston

There are two Plugins folders in SC4:
- My Documents\Simcity 4\Plugins - you install your custom content in this folder. This folder is empty if you don't install anything.
- C:\Program Files\Maxis\Simcity 4\Plugins - Maxis sky backgrounds are located in this folder. (This is the default path, it will be different if you installed your game on another hard drive).

Adam

[Gaston]

There are two Plugins folders in SC4:
- My Documents\Simcity 4\Plugins - you install your custom content in this folder. This folder is empty if you don't install anything.
- C:\Program Files\Maxis\Simcity 4\Plugins - Maxis sky backgrounds are located in this folder. (This is the default path, it will be different if you installed your game on another hard drive).

Adam

Adam,
    I looked in the "C:\Program Files\Maxis\Simcity 4\Plugins" and did not find the original files to remove.    Should I worry about that?


---Gaston

[Ennedi]

Do you see the dark-blue surface with the black grid as the background of your city tile or do you have black background?
Could you make a picture of your Maxis Plugins folder?

[wes.janson]

When I installed the backgrounds, I removed the original png files and put in the new ones. I'm going to try re-scaling them down to 128x128 in PSP and see if that changes anything. Maybe my POS computer won't read them at 512.

[Gaston]

I'll see what I can do about a pic.   I honestly can't remember about what I see as a background.


---Gaston

[Ennedi]

When I installed the backgrounds, I removed the original png files and put in the new ones. I'm going to try re-scaling them down to 128x128 in PSP and see if that changes anything. Maybe my POS computer won't read them at 512.

I tried it a while ago with Clouds 1. It looks worse but still not bad. I will look at another day backgrounds, if the quality will be at least average  I will make 128x128 version for these people who play in software mode or experience problems for another reasons. I want to make my mods good for all players 
I will make some pictures tomorrow and I will show them here. If you will find them enough good, I will release them.
Edit: But I'm rather sure that I will not be able to do the same with night backgrounds. Even with 512x512 size I can't see the difference between brighter and darker stars, and I'm afraid at 128x128 I will not see them at all  - but of course I will check it.

I'll see what I can do about a pic.   I honestly can't remember about what I see as a background.

---Gaston

OK, please check it.

[Gaston]

OK, please check it.

Okay here's my Program file plugins


As you can see , no background images



---Gaston

[Ennedi]

It's strange you haven't background files at this folder 

But don't worry, choose one background from my set and copy files "Background3D0, Background3D1, Background3D2, Background3D3, Background3D4" into this Plugins folder you showed on your pictures (not the whole folder!). You should see them in the game. If something will be wrong, please report it here.
Btw could you tell which background do you see till now?

Adam

[rushman5]

Just so everyone knows, it is definitely because I wasn't in hardware rendering mode. So if you don't have a gfx card, sorry, you just can't experience this addon Thanks wou and ennedi for helping out

[Ennedi]

Just so everyone knows, it is definitely because I wasn't in hardware rendering mode. So if you don't have a gfx card, sorry, you just can't experience this addon Thanks wou and ennedi for helping out

Don't worry!

(...)
I will make 128x128 version for these people who play in software mode or experience problems for another reasons. I want to make my mods good for all players 
I will make some pictures tomorrow and I will show them here. If you will find them enough good, I will release them.
Edit: But I'm rather sure that I will not be able to do the same with night backgrounds. Even with 512x512 size I can't see the difference between brighter and darker stars, and I'm afraid at 128x128 I will not see them at all  - but of course I will check it.
(...)

So maybe you will find something for you too? 

Adam

PS. I will upload non-HD version of sky backgrounds in Fileden first. I'll give a link in our Development Thread (in the first message as other releases) and I will ask you for testing them. If you will say the quality is enough good, I will release non-HD version in the LEX.
Edit: Links for non-HD sky textures are here. Please test them! Maybe some of day textures will be enough good. I uploaded also one night texture (the one with the brightest stars). Please test it too, but for me its quality is much below my standards.

[Gaston]

It's strange you haven't background files at this folder 

Btw could you tell which background do you see till now?

Adam

Adam,
  I don't see any backgrounds.    Just blackness around the edges while in the city.     


---Gaston

[Ennedi]

Adam,
  I don't see any backgrounds.    Just blackness around the edges while in the city.  

---Gaston

OK. This is correct if you don't have any backgrounds in this folder. I was writing about it a while ago:

(...)
The black sky background can be useful for somebody, so you can take it as a tip: remove Maxis background and don't replace them by anything else, the game will work but you sky will be black 
(...)

The most possible thing is they were deleted by mistake (maybe together with another content you had in Maxis Plugins) long time ago and you don't remember about it. When the game is installed, sky backgrounds are the only content of Maxis Plugins folder. I don't know if it is possible that the game "forgot" to install it 
I was afraid that something in your game is corrupted, but as i said everything looks correct. So simply do what I said lately:

(...)
But don't worry, choose one background from my set and copy files "Background3D0, Background3D1, Background3D2, Background3D3, Background3D4" into this Plugins folder you showed on your pictures (not the whole folder!). You should see them in the game. If something will be wrong, please report it here.
(...)