SC4Savegame Explorer

[wouanagaine]

Here is the support thread for my new tool

Dependancies:
msvcp71.dll
gdiplus.dll
glu32.dll
glut32.dll
Put them on your installed folder
You will also need a descent graphic card ( I think a geforce 5 or even a geforce 4 are ok )


Introduction
The tool is a SC4 savegame explorer.
You can for now see only some entries of the savegame, as others are not yet decoded or if decoded I didn't had time to code something for them.
The tool is actually used to find the root cause of the prop pox, but I hope to turn it into something more general and more usefull in the long term.

usage
When running you'll get something like following, with your regions folder and all savegames displayed


Then navigate into your savegames and double click on the one you want to explore, this will bring a new tab:

The tab shows you some of the entries of the savegame that you can explore

Double clic on one and you'll get some info about it
Here is an example for the Prop entry


If you clic on the 'Lot' or 'Building' or 'Prop' it will open a 2D view of the city with the prop/building/lot information visualized in 2D

You can zoom in/out using the mousewheel
You can pan the city by dragging with left button
If you have a layer selected ( in the top left corner of the window ), then when you'll move the mouse over something in the 2D view, you'll get the information about it

As you can see, this can be something interesting for map makers

The tool will be soon available on the LEX after scrutiners reports.
the tool can be found at http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2021


Edit:
Many thanks to BarbyW, Ennedi, and Ripplejet for decyphering various savegames

An update/patch for the SC4 Savegame Explorer can be found here!

[JoeST]

that is an awesome tool, thankyou

Joe

[wouanagaine]

Thanks Joe

The tool is now available
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2021

[mightygoose]

had a play and this tool is very exciting, it has alot of potential, I assume to intend to eventually replace region census, if you could include the region census repository functions with the overview data of RC plus the additional info here you woul have a very powerful regional management tool... in fact you could even call it that, region manager.... or Region Manager X if you so wished....

fantastic new toy

[bob56]

That is really cool!!! While i'm not a modder, i've always wondered how the game creates saves. This could be a really useful application!!

[sithlrd98]

   You've created one cool little app here! Looks a lot like a circuit board when looking at some of these cities!

Jayson

[High5Tower]

Very nice addition here,thank you.

After checking out all my cities in one region in found that a few cities had a much higher figure for "disabled props found in city". So what are disabled props? (And please don't say "props that are disabled")

Any chance of getting one of your custom icons for the desktop shortcut folder? This deserves something special.

Your description of this tool should have said "And provides hours of fun."
Thanks again.

[wouanagaine]

Thanks

Disabled props are props that are presents in the savegame, but not visible in the game.
In a non prop poxed city, this is usually the result of a massive bulldozing and saving right after, the bulldozed props are still in the savegame. I think it is related to how SC4 manages its memory. It helps to keep large memory blocs alive instead of reclaiming them to the OS every time the game need it.
In a prop poxed city, however there are many more disabled props, with non valid values, and all of them are located in the northwest corner, something maybe related to the lot of sim crowds some people see in that place after being hit by prop pox.

I don't intend to replace Region Census, but I'll add more plugins for others known entries. The first one will certainly be a 'Flora/tree' viewer. And as it is a plugins based application, it will be a light download

[High5Tower]

A agree with your answers. I my sandbox Region since using custom content (Dec 2006) I have done a lot a radical things in a lot of the cities while experimenting with building all the neat stuff that's available. As a test just now I bulldozed clean one of my small cities that I have used constantly in the last 2 years for viewing new downloads. It had 37 disabled props and they are still there in the savegame memory file. I believe I will obliterate the tile to get a clean slate.
I checked my old regions before Dec 2006 and they a very clean of disabled props. I remember years ago doing large bulldozing and rebuilding and sometimes the city just didn't feel right so I learned to just obliterate those cities. Now I know why.
My old Berlin region(Pre Dec 06) has some cities that are close the starting stage for the prop pox and I am going to go ahead and take them over the edge and see if they will become prop poxed.Yes I have plenty of backups.
With all the great map makers out there I have started using many maps and not constantly changing each city to cut down on the save game factor.
Thanks for your great contributions to this game.

[wouanagaine]

So here is a Flora plugin, that once you unzip it in SC4Savegame explorer folder, will allow you to see the flora entry. The flora entry is where almost all god/mayor flora are saved

So just unzip and replace the external.py with the one inside the zip

Let's see if you're a green mayor

[JoeST]

Thanks again Wou, I went ahead and created a Wiki page for it [here]

Joe

[wouanagaine]

  for the wiki page

I think that once we get time, we will write the format of known entries

[bat]

Nice program there!

[Zaphod]

Here's an idea, make the program output a list of plugins being used, integrate this with links to download on the LEX.

Basically now we could upload and share cities, without the sticky issue of trading plugins folders. People would just download what they don't have.

[Pat]

Hey Steph this is a cool new programe here!!! Thank you for it!!! 

[wouanagaine]

Here's an idea, make the program output a list of plugins being used, integrate this with links to download on the LEX.

Basically now we could upload and share cities, without the sticky issue of trading plugins folders. People would just download what they don't have.

Only the TGI of what is on the your city is saved, I hardly see how I can link that TGI to a download link
Only a huge database of everything that has been produce and where it can be found( LEX/STEX/PLEX/Japanese... etc ) can solve the problem, and I doubt someone is willing to compile and maintain such a database

[ElPhantasmo69]

Is it possible to use this tool to discover why I have immortal lots? Even removing it from my plugins doesn't seem to slay an immortal hospital in one of my cities.

[High5Tower]

To remove your immortal lot you need to surround it with the same immortal lot and then bulloz the entire mess. Which hospital has this issue by the way?

[wouanagaine]

Is it possible to use this tool to discover why I have immortal lots? Even removing it from my plugins doesn't seem to slay an immortal hospital in one of my cities.

Maybe, you can at least check the props and building around your hospital lot and see if there is something strange around
if you can post a pic of the 2D view at that place, we might find some interesting stuffs

To remove your immortal lot you need to surround it with the same immortal lot and then bulloz the entire mess. Which hospital has this issue by the way?

Yes, which hospital ?

Edit: BTW something you'll soon be able to see on your own computer

[Jonathan]

 
Is that the route sims take to work?!!!
This program is amazing!!!

Jonathan