Tyberius (Heretic Projects) Lotting and Modding Experiments

[mattb325]

Nice. I always liked this complex 

[Simmer2]

Great looking lots Tibi 

Nick

[Wiimeiser]

Okay, the stations are still missing something, and I've downloaded everything twice over. Is it because I'm using the MAXIS NITE version of the Multifunction Station Pack instead of the DARK NITE version as is listed? Because that's the only thing I haven't tried before I just decided to replace the stations with a non-terminus terminus and an odd collection of "abandoned stations" and connecting streets...

EDIT: Here are the problem bits:




EDIT2: Taking a closer look, for Strickland Terminal I appear to be missing people, and for Shinjuku I appear to be missing the buses and banners. The missing sims appear to be vanilla models, so I guess Darknite people?

[Tyberius06]

@Wiimeiser:

For sure the problem is with the Heretic Essentials on your end OR the dependencies with the Essentials (explanation: I started to answere, than I decided to build up the dependencies with an empty plugin folder, and didn't had any problem, when I realized that you have missing props on the japanese version lot too - first image of yours. And for sure you haven't installed the SM2 Mega Prop Pack vol 2. At the top corner of the parking lot there is supposed to be a news stand from Simmer2's second prop pack which is not appearing on your image. Which is strange because I listed the SM2 prop packs separately and not as an additional dependencies for the Essentials. But basicly if download first the Heretic Essentials and all its current dependencies, these missing props should be covered - these are basicly my default dependencies most of my upcoming releases. The missing buses either from MS Solaris Vacanza Buses - from STEX - or Blanco_05 buses from his Gare prop pack from toutsimcities. The people props are coming from Nams Prop Pack vol. 1 and Vol 2. also from toutsimcities and Delecto ploppable people from LEX. Additional timed maxis people props from Tammor's Resource from STEX - this last one is not part of my Heretic Essentials.)
I don't think the problem would be related with the DN/MN set-ups, since these props doesn't have DN/MN versions as separate. The banners are SM2 Single/Dual Pole Banners, the original models are in the SM2 Mega Prop Pack vol. 2. The Heretic Essentials only uses them as in prop families. Since Simmer2 is working with GMax, there is no different MN or DN render. This (DN/MN) only applies for the Strickland Terminus lot and only for the two station buildings, JP Schreifers Failing Office Building on the corner and I think Art128's Tokyo Building - the red and white one on the corner of the Shinjuku), but as far as I know MattB325 made them interchangable. I didn't mention this specifically, but you need to download the MN version of the station models if you don't use Dark Night settings. On the day view there is not supposed to be any difference.
Also however on the previous GLR terminus sets I stated that you need the Heretic Essential v1.1 (so if you had the first release of the Essential (v1.0) I recommended it to be deleted and completelly replaced by the v1.1.) but with these two stations I didn't highlighted it, but in the readme I think I'm refering to it.

I attached a picture to show how they are supposed to look like with a clean install...

I hope it helps.

- Tyberius

ps: on the Strickland station where you have that T junction that's the GLR terminus part. So you could use there Tram-in-road puzzle pieces to connect the station to the GLR line.

[Wiimeiser]

Thanks for the help, I should have everything now. Also, I'm aware of the tram-in-road connection, I bulldozed that tile since one was already there and the game doesn't allow TE lots to be placed next to puzzle pieces.

[Wiimeiser]

I'm still missing something on both Shinjuku stations. By the looks of things it's a timed person between the two lamps second moving away from the fountain:

I'm not entirely sure what pack that is. I'll have to go back and ensure I've installed everything...

EDIT: I had neglected to install one thing listed in the Essentials dependencies list, but that didn't fix the problem, that error model is still there even if I replop the lot. I can't even hover the query tool over it to see what it is because the building is in the way...

On an unrelated note, with the V2 version of Shinjuku East one of the rail tiles, specifically the entrance tile closest to the fountain, isn't transit enabled, so I'm unable to drag a rail through it.

[Tyberius06]

I'm still missing something on both Shinjuku stations. By the looks of things it's a timed person between the two lamps second moving away from the fountain:

I'm not entirely sure what pack that is. I'll have to go back and ensure I've installed everything...

EDIT: I had neglected to install one thing listed in the Essentials dependencies list, but that didn't fix the problem, that error model is still there even if I replop the lot. I can't even hover the query tool over it to see what it is because the building is in the way...

On an unrelated note, with the V2 version of Shinjuku East one of the rail tiles, specifically the entrance tile closest to the fountain, isn't transit enabled, so I'm unable to drag a rail through it.

Wow, now that's wierd, I mean that missing prop, because there isn't anything like that placed onto that spot with that shape. It looks like a bilboard, but I haven't placed any billboard onto this lot, only the pole banners, which you have this time. There is indeed a prop there, I can confirm, but not with this shape. In game one of Orange_o's green roadsweeper is supposed to show up there between 12-17 game hours. See attached PIM-X picture and ingame picture. So I don't know what is causing that conflict. Have you tried it with an empty plugin folder with just the listed dependencies and NAM and the Station LOTs? Also could you confirm whether that green roadsweeper is showing up or not?

Edit:
I removed the Orange Prop pack to see, what shape of error box I can get and I got the same billboard-shape stuff, which confirms to me, that you have missing the Orange MEGA Prop Pack Vol01 TSC.

Also thanks for reporting the missing TE tile. That's on me. Somehow the reader skipped that tile when I was copying the data to create the second version with the japanese buildings. I uploaded a new version.

Heretic URHTS Project 02 - CounterPoint Shinjuku Station Complex (v2.0)

I know I'm working with a bunch of dependencies (that won't be changed in the future), but the dependency tracker can be very handy to gather all the necessary stuffs, and most of my uploads can be found on both STEX and LEX.

- Tyberius

[Wiimeiser]

IIRC the billboard thing is what the game replaces missing models with, normally the game hides this fact with the brown boxes.

[mgb204]

IIRC the billboard thing is what the game replaces missing models with, normally the game hides this fact with the brown boxes.

Not entirely correct:

• Brown Boxes occur when the referenced model does not exist, but the Prop (or other) Exemplar referencing it does.
• Should the Prop Exemplar not be installed, even missing models will just be invisible.
• The "Test Pattern" of coloured squares only appears when you have the S3D model, but the textures it needs are not installed.

In this case you've the third problem, which means you have failed to install whichever download contains the textures needed for display on those models.

[Tyberius06]

IIRC the billboard thing is what the game replaces missing models with, normally the game hides this fact with the brown boxes.

In this case you've the third problem, which means you have failed to install whichever download contains the textures needed for display on those models.

I think Wiimeiser is using the PEG OPPs (No More Brown Boxes) mod (or what is that), which changes the brownboxes to this colourful stuff. I installed this mod, before I ran my last test to see, if I can get the same result without the Orange Mega Prop Pack.

But thanks the explanation, because I wasn't entirely sure either what issue is appearing in what cases.

- Tyberius

[mgb204]

I think Wiimeiser is using the PEG OPPs (No More Brown Boxes) mod (or what is that), which changes the brownboxes to this colourful stuff. I installed this mod, before I ran my last test to see, if I can get the same result without the Orange Mega Prop Pack.

All PEG's mod does is override the brown box with a generic square that shows the test pattern.

Because the model's shape is there, but the textures are not, we can be 100% sure this is just missing model textures. Most likely because your essentials package includes the S3D files, but the dependency is needed to show the textures upon it.

[Tyberius06]

I think Wiimeiser is using the PEG OPPs (No More Brown Boxes) mod (or what is that), which changes the brownboxes to this colourful stuff. I installed this mod, before I ran my last test to see, if I can get the same result without the Orange Mega Prop Pack.

All PEG's mod does is override the brown box with a generic square that shows the test pattern.

Because the model's shape is there, but the textures are not, we can be 100% sure this is just missing model textures. Most likely because your essentials package includes the S3D files, but the dependency is needed to show the textures upon it.

Let's carry on this because now I'm getting confused a bit. My essentials only contains the s3d files for the three angles of Orange's white aston martin, which I actually never used on currently released LOTs. I haven't modified and contained the s3d files of the green roadsweeper into my essentials, because it's a single timed prop and never required any modifications. The Aston Martin has been modified because it was planned to be part of an Orange's cars timed prop family which has never been made.

But just for curiousity I removed the orange prop pack and tried it without the PEG OPPs mod. I got the brown box which shows that the whole model is missing. (picture 01)
Than I put the PEG OPPs mod into my plugin folder and the wierd colourful bilboard shape stuff showed up instead of the brown box. But I went further and I removed one of the original office models from the plugin folder (it hasn't been modified in any way, a "building as props" desc was made from ITS Vantage Metro Central and that desc is in my plugin folder as an included dependency) and I got the same billboard shape stuff. (picture 02)
I don't have a third picture, but I tried with removing the modified s3d file, the Orange Prop Pack and the OPPS mod too and I got the brown box again.

I think PEG updated the mod at some point, so now we get these billboard stuffs instead of the brown box...

- Tyberius

[Tyberius06]

Hi everyone!

So it's been a while I update this thread. I was busy with NAM paths and RL and vacations, but now I'm back with my lotting and other sim city related stuffs. So the so called "legacy project" is coming back as well to STEX. I/we will make a new account where I/we collect the lost items whos creators don't have account on STEX or unclear which account belongs to the creator. Where the creator is clear the lost contents goes under his/her name.
In the last couple of months I revisited a couple of my older lots and projects to establish a workaround, and I went through on my posts here in this thread and updated the broken image links.
I made a couple of changes how I want to release my stuffs in the future. Maybe the most important thing that the long time on the shelves Heretic Seaport Project will get a revisit.
The Heretic SeaPort Project v1.5 and the Expansion will get some technical update, which came to my attention in the past couple of years while I got involved more and more modding and LOT making. The earlier proposed second expansion with the modified (less light cones) base lots and new items however got cancelled (mostly the new items part). The reason behind this is, that I found a new approach and I'm gonna repurpose the new items into a brand new Heretic Seaport Set. It's like an evolution. However with the update the previously shared "beta" items (less light cones, or NO light cones) will be merged into the base sets with some additional filler pieces which came up as a request during the past couple of years. With this the previously called Heretic SeaPort Project will be re-branded to Heretic PEG-CDK3 Costal Remake Project (or something like this). The planned new set (let's call it for now Heretic SeaPort Project II.) and the updated set will be fully compatible, but the new set will be able to stand alone without the need of the old set - of course mix and match options will work perfectly.
But these stuffs only will happen later of this year and next year(s) probably.

Relotting time: ON!

First: Thanks to @Girafe (who made a parking cars model which fits onto my set-up based on @kingofsimcity's blended car park overlays), the "last" (), I mean 4th GLR station set is in the finish line. I still have a little work, but ONE prop closer to the release. However more station may be coming in the future, I don't know. 



And since I have this nice new model/prop with the cars, I started an other project which is actually a revisit a few of my oldest relots (from 2015-2016). The first big fella is this huge civic Complex. Still in a very early stage. Bunch of hijacked and remade/modified textures and @rsc204's several texture overrides are got involved here. I don't want to know how many dependencies will be on this lot...   



And then a few months ago  (more then half a year) I showed a bunch of embankment walls based on Jeronij New Concrete sets and Mas71's walls. All those Jeronij textures got hijacked and turned them to overlays to be able to work with general base textures (therefore the override mods - sidewalk, Gobias terrain - can nicely affect on them). Here is a quick reminder of them:



Well, these days I've been working on other Jeronij sets to give them the same treatment, but to fill up gaps, I need to bring into the topic @buddybud's concrate walls (based on Jeronij's originals) too. The pavement textures (here on the picture it shows the Paeng Sandstone) by default maxis white, the grass is based on maxis grass as well, but it will work better with Gobias terrain mods.





Also I'm experimenting with new fences from @Simmer2's prop sets...





Well, I guess it's a nice pile of lots, still need to work on the lotting and mostly the modding side. The first set is actually almost ready, just need a quick change on some of the lots. Originally I planed the grass based lots as overrides of the original JRJ walls, but I changed the props as well, so the actuall override function is not working anymore, which means they will get new IIDs and be functioning as alternatives (part of the expansion) and the new override lots will be made...

Well we will see how it goes...

- Tyberius

[Tyberius06]

Hi everybody!

Wow, almost 1,5 years since the last post. Well-well. As usually RL always overrides the plans, and plans are overriding plans as well. But I guess, I just wanted to give a heads up here, what's going on recently with my projects. In the past 2 years I have been member of the NAM Team and helping them out with network paths and feature tests, also one year ago finally I (with the help, support and contribution of Corinamarie and CycloneBoom Simtropolis Admins) managed to launch a second account which is called STEX Custodian.
Long story short in community wise I have a couple of longterm ongoing organization and restoration projects: Project-ZIP (at first phase it mostly covers the LEX *exe installer based contents), SimcityPolska Restoration, WMP Restoration, the Paeng's Stashbag and some other mostly smaller legacy upload projects.
Besides these I haven't given up on lotting and modding, I still have like more than a dozen of unreleased stuffs from the past 2 years, not to mention other started but never finished projects.
In most of the cases the big hold back is my own dependency package called Heretic Essentials. Since with almost every kind of lotting work what I started I added something to the Heretic Essentials and I never had a fully finished set, also in the past few months I revisited the structure of it and while I kept adding new stuffs I also separated it and have taken out some other stuffs from the pack. Currently I'm working on a bunch of custom UI/query for my old and new lots, because I also started revisiting my old uploads (Seaport Project, IRM walls, GLR stations etc...).
Now, since I'm always in and out of projects it has a slow process. Once I'll finish these custom UI/Queries and will be able to start updating the lots with them, the new Heretic Essentials will be good to go. And after that I can release most of my shelved lotting projects.
Anyway here is a few example, what I was working on in the past 1-2 years.

1. In my last post I was really appreciating Girafe's help with the blended parking cars, which was created to cover my set-up based on kingofsimcity's overlay textures. Well a few months ago I decided, that I would give a try to BAT/GMAX after I found a bunch of nice car models on a free model warehouse. Also earlier to help me out, Fantozzi sent me a few car models from his stashbag. Well I tried to combine these different sources and made a bunch of experiment with recoloured car models placed onto my set-up. Well while Girafe is a professional BATter and might have a slightly more powerfull machine than mine (or just managed to keep the poly count low enough for nice renders), my models appeared to have too high poly count to be able to be rendered at once, so I needed to cut them half. Which actually turned out well, because I got more variations for prop families, which was the whole reason in the first place.






2. As the above GLR station the next one is also part of the never released Urban GLR Set vol. 4. (it hasn't been releaseed, because at that time I was still waiting for someone to make those blended parking cars, now I'm waiting for myself to finish the Heretic Essentials. By the way the blended parking cars and some other car models - created by Barroco Hispano (former Goldman Sachs and other aliases - will be part of the next Heretic Essentials)
With this station I contined to experiment the possibilities of underground network paths, which can be compatible with the current FLUP (Flexible UnderPasses) Puzzle Pieces set-ups. I love this concept and keep experimenting with this. (at the end of this post you will see a new addition which actually will be released pretty soon).





3. Last summer I revisited one of my cities (I've hardly played with the game since jan. 2019) due to a massive station and rail network rework and I found to need a new 5x5 plaza. I wanted some special stuff on it. And Simmer2 was just about to release his Scrabo tower. So I made a plaza around the building and then I spread a bunch of timed props on it just for fun and to increase the possible amount of dependencies when I release this. Also I decided to make an other plaza and then I remembered that a fellow SC4 player a year or 2 ago asked me to make a lot based on one of RedDonQuixote Urban HD props. Now these things led to these 3 plaza lots, what I've created since last summer.

Heretic Scrabo Tower Plaza (based on SM2 Scrabo Tower)


Heretic Windmill Square (based on SM2's windmill model and prop, but also using RDQ's urban HD props)


Heretic Simlacroix Plaza



4. Also it happened on last (2019) summer, that I got involved one of Tariely's massive relotting project. This time she planned to relot SimcityFuturist's Regional Airport (modular set). TL-SCF-Heretic Modular Regional Airport



5. Recently the things with NAM speeded up a bit, which resulted the release of a new rail-monorail based network called Hybrid RailWay (HRW) - you can read my how-to tutorial about it over here. The whole network, the platform props, catenaries and wires and textures were created by eggman121. As there is a kind of approach now in the Team, that we would include the batteries with any kind of new networks (in this case at least a first set of stations), I made two stations for the HRW network which is included to the NAM. At a later time I'm gonna share my findings about, how to TE mod these kind of stations to get the proper result and avoid some missbehaviour.



6. And finally. An other fellow SC4 player asked help regarding and old morifari GLR tunnel OST. It gave me the idea to try to make it FLUP compatible so underground trams and FLUPs could use it. It is pathed and fully UDI enabled. Also as the original version, this provides GLR-to-Subway transition too.



The placement is a bit tricky:









Ok, so that's it for now.

- Tyberius

[godfreygodfrey]

Is the Google Drive folder accessible?

[Tyberius06]

Is the Google Drive folder accessible?

Not yet. I've been planing for a while, but I alway was busy with something else. Also while I was revisiting them for dependencies and modding errors, I actually started updating some of them. When it will be accessible I will announce it in a post.

- Tyberius