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Arden Tree Controller Help Desk

Started by vortext, June 01, 2011, 06:42:21 PM

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vortext

#300
Double post because, well, erm, turns out I accidently left out the multi-purpose blocker from the River controllers alltogether. . whoops. . no wonder PEG mmps showed, hehe.  ::)

Now compiling new verions and while at it adressing the cattails problems Kergelen came across as well.

With the multipurpose blocker, PEGs mmps really ought to be a thing of the past by simply blocking FloraPreferences. At least it works for me.

So note for betatesters, do not continue with the current controllers. I'll send out a notification when new verions are ready for download.
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gn_leugim

Quote from: vortext on February 02, 2013, 05:29:06 AM
Double post because, well, erm, turns out I accidently left out the multi-purpose blocker from the River controllers alltogether. . whoops. . no wonder PEG mmps showed, hehe.  ::)

Now compiling new verions and while at it adressing the cattails problems Kergelen came across as well.

With the multipurpose blocker, PEGs mmps really ought to be a thing of the past by simply blocking FloraPreferences. At least it works for me.

So note for betatesters, do not continue with the current controllers. I'll send out a notification when new verions are ready for download.

check

I guess I havent get them yet because I am using for now in lower altitudes  &Thk/(

vortext

Or depending on which controller you currently use. The coast controller has no issues since the entere preference table is occupied.

In any case, I came across more inconsistencies. . darn zeros and ones are dancing before my eyes.  &sly I have to go now so it'll be most likely somewehere toninght new versions are up.
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Mr.Lin

There are some things I need to learn, thank you, vortext, my friend !
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Indiana Joe

Been trying it out, and all I can say is that it's even more awesome than it looks in the pictures in this thread.  Which is saying a lot.

Hands down, this will be the most realistic terrain-related plugin ever created.  Bravo, vortext.  Bravo.

speed285

I do not usually write much in the forum, it may be because of my shyness, for my bad English or both. I still eagerly this post and I can not imagine the day when this mod is released.

Great job!

vortext

@ Mr.Lin, it can be quite daunting at the beginning for sure but once you get the hang of it, you'll find it's more about repetition than anything else really. Also, if you start to develop your own controller and/or mmps, even if it's for personal use only, don't forget to request a ID range over here. Otherwise you might encounter conflicts with other mmps.

@ Indiana Joe, even better than advertised eh?! Now that's something you don't see everyday!  :D Glad you like it! I assume you had nothing weird happen, yet?  *knocks on wood*

@ speed285, thanks, it will be sooner rather than later. And you should stop by more often, not only here but in general because there's nothing wrong with your English!  :thumbsup:

~

Allright, I've ironed out minor bugs and most notably, PEGs mmps shouldn't be a problem any longer. The latest version has just been send out and I'm curious to learn if it, indeed, has been nipped in the but. Fingers crossed . .  ::)

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Kergelen

Tested. All is ok. :party:  No more PEG MMP conflicts.

I also tested all the controllers in the same city tile, saving every time before changing the controllers. No CTD :thumbsup:


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Gugu3

I'm having a problem...but don't know why...it loads the city tile without any problem...then after a while of god mod tree planting it crashes to desktop :( no problems with the previous version....any idea??

vortext

@ Kergelen, finally!

@ Gugu3, did you get a ctd while using just one controller or multiple?! And in case of the latter, which combination of controllers did you use?
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sunv123

Or it could be a problem with your PC. If the game or the PC can't handle the pressure of the trees, it will CTD. Or it could be like vortext said, if you have two controllers, then it will CTD due to the fact that SC4 can only run with one tree controller. You can go into a city tile without problems, but it only happens when you use the controller.

I have a pretty messy plugin's folder, so if I tested it, eh, unexpected problems may pop up. :D Is there any problems with this and the SFBT Tree replacement Mod? $%Grinno$%



Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

Indiana Joe

#311
I can't get the v2.1 download to work, it says there's an error with dropbox...

Nevermind, I got it downloaded.  I guess it was just a hiccup in the system.

Gugu3

I have just 1 tree controller installed...so do i have to suppose it's my pc which isn't able to handle the tree controller?? &mmm

whatevermind

I still haven't had the chance to fire this up in game and test it, real life was a bit busier this weekend than I expected.   ::)

However, I've been through the dependencies and poked around the files in Reader a bit, and I've found a few things worth mentioning:

  • Several of the dependencies have bugs themselves, mostly harmless ones, but I might put together a LEX bug report anyway. Two of them install a version of Lowkee's seasonal trees mod. The two CP MEGA packs contain different versions of the same file. Two more install readme's into the Plugins folder. One of them installs two readme's, one of which has it's own bug.  &sly
  • On that note, is Lowkee's seasonal tree mod required for the tree controllers? It's not listed as a dependency itself, but as far as I know, only Lowkee and Gobias have actually included it in terrain mods - otherwise you would need to get the standalone copies of the mod to see seasonal behavior, right?
  • The SFBT Birches lists SFBT Essentials as a dependency. I don't know if this remains a dependency in your tree controller. If you do still need it for the Birches, you might want to add it to the dependency list so people don't miss it. If it's not needed, that's probably worth mentioning too, in case there's anyone out there who doesn't already have it.  :P
  • SFBT Essentials includes options for installing their street tree mod, which itself has dependencies which include some of the same and some different flora than those used in your tree controllers. Has anyone tested to see if there is any conflicts with the SFBT street trees mod? I haven't personally used it. It's not really a problem as far as the tree controller is concerned, but it would be an item of interest in case issues do come up at some point after release.

Moving on to the mod itself:

  • I used the DAT Compare in Reader to cross check the shore controllers with each other and the tree controllers with each other, and they all match up right - so there shouldn't be any issues with interchangeability.
  • File 0x6534284a,0xe83e0437,0xeeee004f does not have an entry in the Exemplar Name property in the Coast and River controllers. Is this a problem? In the STC Inland it is called "Sycamore".
  • The last issue I've found is that all of the controllers, shore and otherwise, contain a flora brush. Now, this isn't itself a problem, but it could be a conflict with some of c.p.'s terrain mods that have flora brushes, as well as my own flora brush mod. In the case of c.p.'s mods, whichever brush loads last will simply control. In the case of my mod, these brushes should be overwritten by it due to load order, but if they aren't, you'd still get the texture and LTEXT associated with my mod, but not the brush exemplar itself.

That's it for now, hopefully I'll get a chance to look at in-game before too long.  ::)

Andreas

As for the SFBT-related questions, it's not that the SFBT Birches would require the SFBT Essentials as a dependency, but it's rather the other way round: The SFBT Essentials download includes the birches. The props are included in a file called "SFBT_ArkenbergeJoe_Baeume.dat", which can be found in the folder "\Plugins\SFBT\SFBT_Props" by default.

The SFBT Essentials do not install the SFBT Street Tree Mod. They just install the tree prop families that are also included in the Street Tree Mod, but for convenience (the prop families are used on several other SFBT lots as well), we included them into the Essentials.

Maybe I should explain what those tree prop families actually do: I made those when creating the SFBT Street Tree Mod, and as vortext mentioned in this thread a while ago, creating T21 Exemplar files for this mod can be rather tedious, since you need so many for a nice-looking tree-lined street. So I thought using prop families would help quite a bit for getting more variety.

The good thing about prop families is that you don't pick individual props in the Lot Editor, but a set of predefined props that is controlled via the prop family ID. Since I wanted even more variety (some users like the Maxis trees, others like cycledogg's trees etc.). So I created several DATs that contain a set of trees, and assigned the same prop family to them.

The user can pick one or more of those DATs (included in both the SFBT Street Tree Mod and the SFBT Essentials) in order to get the desired trees. If you want to use a different set of trees, just pick another tree prop family DAT, and get other trees along your streets and on the lots where the family has been used, without the need to edit the T21's or the lots (just re-dragging or re-plopping of the items is required).
Andreas

vortext

#315
@ Gugu3, was this with a clean plugins folder, i.e. nothing else besides dependencies? It's rather curious you didn't had CTDs with the previous version, though I did remove some properties which I thought could be removed safely so maybe that's it. Let me know which controller did you used, so I can compile another version for you to try out.

@ whatevermind, thanks for the thorough scrutenering! Lets go over some of the points.

Quote from: whatevermind on February 03, 2013, 08:55:51 PM
  • Several of the dependencies have bugs themselves, mostly harmless ones, but I might put together a LEX bug report anyway. Two of them install a version of Lowkee's seasonal trees mod. The two CP MEGA packs contain different versions of the same file. Two more install readme's into the Plugins folder. One of them installs two readme's, one of which has it's own bug.  &sly

Well, there's little I can do about bugs in the dependencies themselves or duplicate files. However, those two which install Lowkee's seasonal patches worry me a bit because they can interfere with the treeline. Do you still know which dependencies it were? In any case, I'll put a heads-up in the readme.

Quote from: whatevermind on February 03, 2013, 08:55:51 PM
  • On that note, is Lowkee's seasonal tree mod required for the tree controllers? It's not listed as a dependency itself, but as far as I know, only Lowkee and Gobias have actually included it in terrain mods - otherwise you would need to get the standalone copies of the mod to see seasonal behavior, right?

Yes, good you bring this up. Indeed, Lowkee's seasonal patches are needed for CPs terrain mods. However, the current patches don't have the proper altitude so the firs will end up way above the snowline. I've already contacted Lowkee twice about this and asked him if he could update the files. In fact, I've already prepared updated files, they only need to be uploaded to the LEX. Maybe another LEX administrator could do this as well?!

Quote from: whatevermind on February 03, 2013, 08:55:51 PM
  • The SFBT Birches lists SFBT Essentials as a dependency. I don't know if this remains a dependency in your tree controller. If you do still need it for the Birches, you might want to add it to the dependency list so people don't miss it. If it's not needed, that's probably worth mentioning too, in case there's anyone out there who doesn't already have it.  :P

Dependencies to dependencies are not needed. I've listed all the actual files needed in the Read-Me (see below)

Quote from: whatevermind on February 03, 2013, 08:55:51 PM
  • File 0x6534284a,0xe83e0437,0xeeee004f does not have an entry in the Exemplar Name property in the Coast and River controllers. Is this a problem? In the STC Inland it is called "Sycamore".

Hm, I'll look into this.

Quote from: whatevermind on February 03, 2013, 08:55:51 PM
  • The last issue I've found is that all of the controllers, shore and otherwise, contain a flora brush. Now, this isn't itself a problem, but it could be a conflict with some of c.p.'s terrain mods that have flora brushes, as well as my own flora brush mod. In the case of c.p.'s mods, whichever brush loads last will simply control. In the case of my mod, these brushes should be overwritten by it due to load order, but if they aren't, you'd still get the texture and LTEXT associated with my mod, but not the brush exemplar itself.

Good point, I'll leave the flora brush out of the controllers and maybe provide it as a stand alone file.

@ Andreas, the controllers don't need the essential files, only the proper birches (i.e. SFBT_Birken_Jahreszeit.dat). However, there's a minor issue with the SFBT tree replacement mod with regard to tree controllers (as uncovered here). Since they include a copy of Maxis' Godmode flora players will get Maxis and/or CPs trees in godmode. This is easily solved though when the controllers load last so they override those files.

~

I've started work on the read-me, most importantly the dependencies list. A first draft is available over here. I'd appreciate it if you folks can tell me if this is clear enough and if all the links work.



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wouanagaine

Quote from: vortext on February 04, 2013, 05:23:11 AM
I've started work on the read-me, most importantly the dependencies list. A first draft is available over here. I'd appreciate it if you folks can tell me if this is clear enough and if all the links work.
Do you plan to provide a cleanitol file ?

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sunv123

#317
Looks, great, vortext. Maybe an option of links and direct downloads would be better for some. Anyways, seems good for me..
Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

Simcoug

That dependency list is well laid out - better than most.  For experienced players it should not be a problem to assemble (most of these are already in many plugin folders) - I mostly fear for the beginner who finds a seasonal tree controller for the first time and doesn't take time to understand the readme.  But, there's really nothing you can do about that (as I, and most content up-loaders have probably learned).

whatevermind

@Andreas: I understand now, sorry for the confusion. However, I would like to point out that both the LEX description and the Readme for the SFBT Seasonal Birches list SFBT Essentials as a dependency:

Quote
To ensure the proper functionality, make sure the files mentioned above are installed in the plugins folder. In addition, you need the following files from Simtropolis Exchange or SC4Devotion:

SFBT_Birken_Jahreszeit.dat (included)
SFBT Essentials

@vortext: Let's see, the dependencies that install Lowkee's mod are girafe's Abies Grandis and his Serbian Spruces.

I gave the dependencies list a look over, and it looks pretty good. I really like the idea of specifying exactly which files are required from each of those downloads, especially since some of them contain a lot of other files. You might want to note that the direct download links require you to be logged in, or you'll get an error message. However the standard links work fine of course.