Help with automata modding

[vester]

What I have to do now?
What I have to chance at the "Vert" and "Indx"-Tabs?

Well it helps to have a closer look at your work. Can't tell from your post precisely how far you got.
Could you attach the files to a post or upload it elsewhere ?

Your tutorial is very good but it suddenly stops at this point (my opinion).

You should see what I had to work with, 1/3 of what is there and spread over a lot of posts.

Not sure what it is you are looking for, but most is covered by the post under The Vert tab and The Indx tab

I have never found the ONE way to do things. Tend to go back and forth, sometimes jumps over things and return.

[DCMetro2834]

Hey everyone,

I was following an automata tutorial by screamingman12, and I made a beta of a monorail skin I am working on to see how it looks in game. With the in-game pic however, I am finding a few issues with the skin.

When I was re-skinning the Connexion monorail by tag_one, I made sure that I stayed in the boundaries....but the game cut off the end of the monorail wagon.



I made an arrow pointing to the area that looks wrong. It also looks the same in the "textured" render in Ilive's reader. (I know there are other problems, but I just wanted to get a basic version of this in game to see how the process worked).



Does anyone know why my skin is getting cut off?


Thanks,

DC

[vester]

I don't have a copy of it, but here goes...

I guess that you will have to compress the textuers down under the red line:


That would look sometihng like this:

Have tone the white a little grey. White is never pure white.

[DCMetro2834]

Thanks for the advice with the tones! It seems like that is the issue with the train...but this is what the original skin looks like.



I now see that the original skin has more on that side than the other side. Thanks for your help!


Also....why is the quality coming out so bad on my train? The original one by tag_one looks like this:


In my opinion, his quality looks much better than my version....


Thanks a lot for your help,

DC

[vester]

White is one of the hardest color to get right.
The game turns up the brightness, so you will need to turn it down in the textures.
So try to tone down the white as a start.

Try to have a look at this picture:


That is a white train, right ?

Then again the colors in the pictures isn't pure white right. The RGB values for white is: 255, 255, 255

Have a look at the different colors of whites:


As you can see, it's only the height lights that is close to pure white.

[DCMetro2834]

Oh, I see, thanks for pointing that out! It was very helpful. 

DC

[mrmike1979]

i think i am going to go crazy I can seem to figure out why some of my skins are showing up as the red and blue colors in lot editor. just like when you run the game in software when using 512x512 textures can some one please help

[DCMetro2834]

I was reskinning Vester's Yellow Berlin MU model in Reader today, and saved my own version, and put it in Plugins in its own folder.  Everything looked fine in reader, the S3D model showed the entire model.

However in game, I got this issue.  I tried multiple cities, and both had this issue with the trams.


I am not really sure what's going on.   Anyone that has any pointers of a fix for this bug would be very, very greatly appreciated!!

~DC

[vester]

Never seen anything like that myself.

Could you package up the png and the dats, so I can have a look at the flies ?

How does the Berlin Tram look in game ?

[DCMetro2834]

The Berlin Tram works perfectly fine in-game, actually.

So, I've attached the files.  The first folder is my reskinned version of your tram as a DAT.  I included my PNG image and FSH image in that folder, also.

I really appreciate you helping me.

~DC

[vil]

There is a greyscale image in the alpha channel of the skin FSH, that makes some parts of the skin transparent (anything darker than 50 percent grey IIRC).

The parts that are visible in your screenshot are the lighter parts of the alpha channel.

Btw Hi Arne!

[DCMetro2834]

There is a greyscale image in the alpha channel of the skin FSH, that makes some parts of the skin transparent (anything darker than 50 percent grey IIRC).

The parts that are visible in your screenshot are the lighter parts of the alpha channel.

Btw Hi Arne!

Ohhhh, I see!!  Now that you mention it, the original "alpha blended" does indeed show all the color, while mine is faded.

EDIT: And it's fixed!!  Many thanks to Vil and Vester!!

~DC

[bombardiere]

Is there anywhere is a list of Maxis' road vehicle automatas IID?

Vester's thread has list of rail automatas IIDs, I would like to have a list for other vehicles. I know that I can get info by using iLives Reader Navigator tool, but a ready made list with IID types of vehicle would be very helpful.

I want to replace Maxis vehicles.

I am a bit confused with automata modding, but I want make some of my own tests first. I want to try and see if I can replace a taxi or a bus as a proof of concept test.

[mgb204]

I don't know off hand of a ready-made list.

But you could find an existing Automata mod of the same kind, so for example the Taxis. Then you'd have the files and IDs ready to go. In the first instance though you should look to create the S3D models, unless you are re-skinning existing automata. Because that's going to be the harder part. If you get there, making it an override shouldn't be too taxing.

Otherwise, the Navigator should make finding particular automata pretty swift. Perhaps not for the regular cars as they aren't named so clearly. But the Taxi's should be easy to locate this way.

[vester]

Haven't seen any list on other automata than rail.

Otherwise, the Navigator should make finding particular automata pretty swift.

Navigator ? Which program are we talking about ?
(linkie please)

Guess you are referring to the Navigator sub-program in iLive Reader.
Never used that function before.

[tigerbuilder]

Mikeseiths mod has a lot of the maxis IID's in it. Maybe that could help you a bit.

http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/12973-european-car-replacement-mod/?page=4

[bombardiere]

. Perhaps not for the regular cars as they aren't named so clearly.

That is the thing. There are at least three Taxis in the game. But I think I can sort it out if I am patient enough.

@Vester Yes, we were talking about ILive Reader's Navigator tool. Sadly no super special program. 

To test this automata modding I did try to use a bus model from another game. Cities in Motion 1. It has better car models than in SC4 but still relatively low poly. I have tried several times but I have not been able to introduce these into the SC4 environment.

I have read Vester's and Ceafus tutorials, but so far I have not been able to get a new automata in to the game. I get the model and the texture showing beautifully in the iLives Reader's preview, but it will not show up in the game.

http://simmania.darkbb.com/t535-a-basic-automata-making-tutorial


Yesterday I did what Robin suggested and took a Maxis bus replacement. First all buses were gone in the game. So my override failed. Then I went carefully step by step. I checked I had inserted a 3ds model file, named it, set it to refer to right group number, deleted extra groups and materials and most importantly remember to push "Apply" button. This made a city to crash while loading. So I guess it is a sign that insertion succeeded, but there is something wrong in the file or model.

Vester's tutorial is missing a few crucial pictures, but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong  Perhaps something with the Groups or something I am doing with the Anim or Mats Tabs.

I tested with Cim 1 Routemaster model. It has 991 triangles. Could it be too complex for SC4? Just for a test I tried a simple Sketchup model but that too was a no show in the game.

[mgb204]

CTDs are a sure sign of a problem with the model. There is some crazy-low limit to the number of polys for Automata, I think as low as 500. If you are really efficient with your modelling though you should be able to find a good balance between quality and polys. This is really because as full 3D models, they had to be super efficient to work in the early 2000s without overloading a computers resources. However, you can have really detailed textures, sometimes you can use 2D textures to fake detail that the model doesn't have.

Find the details of the Taxi automata in this thread .

Also, feel free to PM/E-mail the models my way. I can check if all the S3D settings are correct for you. But at this point I think you simply need to lower the polygon count. Plenty of tips on that on Google.

[vester]

I have read Vester's and Ceafus tutorials, but so far I have not been able to get a new automata in to the game. I get the model and the texture showing beautifully in the iLives Reader's preview, but it will not show up in the game.

You will need to be sure that the surface is turned the right side out as the game only show the front and from the back side the model is see through.
In MilkShape 3d you can turn of, so its only the front side showing. That is the best way I can think of to check if you got the right side out.

Vester's tutorial is missing a few crucial pictures, but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong  Perhaps something with the Groups or something I am doing with the Anim or Mats Tabs.

Will try to have a look around for the pictures and reupload them.
Found them. The pictures is back to the one post where they where missing.

I tested with Cim 1 Routemaster model. It has 991 triangles. Could it be too complex for SC4? Just for a test I tried a simple Sketchup model but that too was a no show in the game.

Would try to bring that nów some what.

A lot of the details on my models are in the textures. Otherwise they tend to disappear in-game (.

[tigerbuilder]

Everything in those tables has to be spot on perfect. I've had simple errors cause ctd. Sometimes it was obvious like number of tri's not equal to that tab. Check it all very carefully using your simple model.