This tutorial is complete now i have fixed all problems i know about if anything is still incorrect please let me know.
(Thanks in advance Biwdc)
I am at Some Point Planning to add pictures to help with the tutorial when they will be added i do not Know.Found The Fshman Program it's still on simtrop just in the exchange now,Link Below :)
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Here is my tutorial on creating road or street textures in sim city 4+rush hour Expansion. (Sim City 4 Deluxe)This may also work in sc4 without rush hour however it is not fully tested in that.I hope this tutorial is helpful,(If You need help send me a pm here or if your a member of Simtropolis.com Message me there,I use the same user name There).I may not be able to help with all problems but i will attempt to help.
Now before you get started you will need the following: (Some of these can be substituted by another program)
i lives reader(available onSc4Devotion(Registration in the BSC Exchange is required to download)
fshman program(available onSimtropolis)(Registration Required)
irfan viewer(download free at:IrfanViewer)
ms paint(included with windows)
A street or road texture.dat(whichever one your looking to edit) from the simtropolis exchange(Registration Required) or look for the textures in the sim city_.dats(this is not recomended as it will be real hard finding the textures you want so i will not explain it this way).
if you have these items or once you get them your ready to begin(there are 6 parts to this tutorial)
Part 1:Extracting all fsh files for the 5 zooms
Well first open i lives reader and click file at the top of the reader and select open and browse around for the texture file your going to edit and select it and then hit fill the list on the right side of the reader so you can see the contents of it in the reader(if the texture is in the sim city 4 my documents plugins folder) click the button labled plugins on the left side of the reader (blue area)and move through the list to find your file and then select it and then hit fill the list.
Now you have to extract all the fsh files for each zoom you will need to organize it so each zoom is seperated do like i did and create 5 folders for all zooms and label them 1,2,3,4,5 there are a total of 5 zooms make certain each fsh for each zoom is in the right folder for the zoom it belongs to.(there are alot of fsh files).
It's not hard to see which zooms are which the reader gives you a look at each fsh bmp image so you will know if you have the zoom your looking to extract,now select 1 fsh file at a time for zoom 5 the largest images and save them as decoded files to the zoom 5 folder click your Right mouse button(in the fsh file area)to bring up the little menu,save decoded files is right near the top of the list once zoom 5 is done then do 4 then 3,2 and 1.
tip:if all of the same zoom are in a line use the mouse to drag along selecting all of them and then save it's faster that way.
tip2:the zoom image sizes go from smallest (zoom 1) to largest(zoom 5).
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Part 2:Extracting the bmp images(Zoom 5 only)
After extracting all 5 zooms to there folders open up the fshman program and open each fsh file 1 at a time(you will only need the fsh files for zoom 5 for this) and extract the bmp images from each fsh Left click the image under the Bitmaps folder in the (structure tree area) for ever fsh file you open then (Right click the image again in the(structure tree area) under the folder(Bitmaps)to bring up the little menu and select export to color) you can save them to where ever you like but there best put with the zoom 5 fsh files, now after you get them all extracted use any editing program(ms paint i used) to edit them the way you want add new lines,change colors,ect(there is going to be alot bmp images aswell as fsh files so be warned)
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Part 3:Resizing the images for the other 4 zooms(real fun)
This is an annoying part resizing the images for the other 4 zooms you will need to use a image resizing program you could use ms paints but i used irfan it's alot better or you could use another program you have, the other zooms have to go like this zoom 4(64x64) zoom 3(32x32)zoom 2(16x16)zoom 1(8x8) Zoom 5 which you don't need to make is(128x128)you edited all these in part 2 so it's done,now resize each zoom 5 image to each zoom one zoom at a time and save do zoom 4 first then 3,2,1 and when you save make certain to save them in there proper zoom folders so you don't get confused or worse save over another zoom image.
tip:resizing the images for the other 4 zooms is a piece of cake if you use the batch conversion in irfan or in the program your using,just make certain in irfan that the resample box is checked or the images will come out like crap,this may be the same with other programs aswell.
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Part 4:Inserting all the images into the fsh files.
(even more fun)
Now for the really annoying part inserting all those bmps into the fsh files open the fshman and open each fsh file 1 at a time for zoom 5 and as the same way you exported the bmps in part 2 use the insert instead and insert the same bmp image that you edited as the one shown by the fshman make certain they match (exactly)and also after inserting your bmp delete the old bmp click it and select remove so yours will be the only one showing and then save the fsh file over it's original and after your done with zoom 5 go onto zoom 4 and do the same insert the zoom 4 bmps,and after that do the other zooms 3, 2 and 1 remember do each zoom one at a time get one done and go on to the next, once your finished with all zooms go onto part 5.
tip:it's faster to get all zooms done with the batch processer command in fshman but i haven't used it enough yet to be able to explain it that way) however qurlix has an excellent tutorial which explains using the batch processer heres a link to it:Tutorial - How to Make Custom Network Textures--This tutorial is no longer available,if I find it again or a similar one I will update this link sorry about that :(
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Part 5:Getting the fsh files ready for in game use.
Now to prepare the fsh for in game as a .dat file open up i lives reader and Right click the mouse button like you did in part 1 of this and select insert and compress and browse around to find your zoom 5 folder and click select to open it and then Right click on the mouse for the little menu and select arange by type so all fsh files for that zoom will be together and then drag the mouse along to select all the fsh files you can and click select to put them in the reader,now if you don't get them all you will need to keep going back and get the rest(but keep doing the arange thing)before you get any others and(ignore the tgi files you do not need them but never delete them or you will damage the fsh)now after your done getting zoom 5 in the reader do the exact same thing for the other 4 zooms till there all in the reader with zoom 5 and after that then all that needs to be done is save as a.dat.
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Part 6:Saving the.dat.
to save all your fsh files in a .dat click file at the top of the reader and select save as(save it as what you want the name to be it don't matter)and save it directly to your sim city 4 my documents plugins folder so you can see it in game,next startup the game and select the street or road texture(whichever one you edited & be aware yours replaces the in game street or road texture as we know so far there is no way to have 2 or more of the same network textures)and then just use it like you would the normal streets or roads and zoom in and out to check the zooms if there is a problem you may need to re start all over again.
tip:if your texture will not show at all by some buildings it may not have a problem since some road or street texture.dats people make may not show at all under certain weath levels it depends on the .dat your using to make your texture if for some reason your texture doesn't show with certain buildings then try it with no buildings at all to see if it works correctly,if it does place it by RCI buildings until it shows to see which weath level it is when it shows,check the building query menu for the weath level.(this happens because not all textures were gathered for the orginal.dat for one reason or another)to get the rest you would need to look in the simcity_.dats.
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Info:
(RCI-Residential,Commercial & Industrial).
Bmp Stands for Bitmap it's a high Qaulity image file (it uses a lot of memory & can have a rather large file size).
fsh files are the primary image file type used by many EA Games(games),i do not know what it stands for.
tgi-Stands for type,group & instance this file is used as a support file for other files it is used to tell the game the type of file it is(i''e a texture,3d model,ect),the group it falls under(street,road,ect),& the instance code this keeps things in order in texturing this number is used to asign the zooms properly.
.DATs are data files that hold the files like,fsh,3ds,ect these files are a compressed format.
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(2006,2014 Biwdc Inc.)
