I opened a lot package in simpe, and then tried to export the gmdc in various formats and milkshape and 3ds max crashed when I tried to import them. I'm trying to understand just how the information of lots is stored, thinking maybe I could export a lot in parts, but there are many things I don't recognize. Obviously it's not the same as objects. Can someone help me?

I don't know for sure, but I really doubt that this can be done.

Exactly what part of the lot are you hoping to use? The terrain? The grid, terrain paint, and floor coverings are all stored in different 3D Array records. The walls? That's stored in several different records, including the Wall Graph and Wall Layer. The roof? That's stored in the Roof record. The objects? Those are stored in the several different records as well, including OBJD^wiki, OBJM^wiki, and XOBJ^wiki records.

First of all, thanks very much for answering.





Well now, 'everything' would have been my first response, but as that seems like not possible in the near future... The walls is what I'm really aiming after. I can do the rest in the 3d program. Actually one could do everything in a 3d program, but I built long ago a castle in the game complex enough and big enough I prefer to spend my time trying to export it than trying to replicate it in max. So, what I'm really trying to do is to export the structure of the castle walls, bridges, turrets and the like.

Your answer does shed some light to the matter. I'll take another look at the files in SimPE and try again. Thanks.

As far as I know, the game doesn't keep the lot as a 3D model. Instead, it rebuilds the lot each time from the information which is stored in the individual records. All of the lot data is stored in a proprietary format which probably isn't useful to any other 3D program.

For example, if you look at the terrain grid, it's just a 3D array (x,y,level) of elevations. Is there a way to import an array of elevations into a 3D modelling program and get something useful? Do 3D modelling programs even have a concept of levels?

The walls are stored as (x,y, level) coordinates with additional information, like the type of wall. They require the terrain grid to determine wall elevation and height, and the levels would determine the top and bottom edges of each wall segment. Is that useful to a 3D modelling program?

Well, one could write a plug-in to translate all those levels and arrays into something a 3d program understands, after all 3d programs do use something similar to store information, it's just that the game and the 3d program speak different languages.

Anyway. I finally got what I wanted more or less. After opening a random lot from the lot catalog (not from a neighborhood like before) in SimPE and exporting the gmdc as .obj and trying to import it in max -and after disregarding the usual message announcing an inminent crash- I got a brief glimpse of the complete house then max told me it could not take it anymore and that I could try saving before the program closed but the file would probably become corrupted. I accepted the emergency save and when I opened the saved file there was the house except there weren't any more windows or doors.

Thinking I could live with that I tried with my big castle but failed, the program crashed without showing me anything. As it seemed the windows and doors were causing problems, I opened my castle in game, stripped it of everything including stairs, windows, doors, plants, water and terrain elevations and tried again after putting it in the lot catalog, not in a neighborhood. And success! Max crashed at first, but allowed me to save the model. I don't what is causing this initial crash but I¡m working with the house now and I'm not having any problems. Milkshape crashes without trying to save, sadly so I'm as usual thankful to my ancient copy of max 8.

Now, how comes I'm the first one trying to do this? I was sure someone else would have tried to export a house before like with furniture and clothes but it seems it wasn't the case. Making (building?) houses in game is much more fun than making them in a 3d program. I can even say it's horrendously boring trying to use max or milkshape to make houses from scratch. What I'm trying to say is... could someone write a plug-in to export houses? there are tools to export everyting except houses, why? (and I mean why for everything but houses?

I wonder whether you have found the lot imposter?

If i have and this is the lot imposter then for some reason it has all interior walls and maybe even furniture. I tried with another much smaller house and when I got a glimpse of the complete thing before max crashed it had weird boxes inside that I'm pretty sure is located in the same place as furniture in the game.

Ah, you hadn't mentioned that before (or else I missed it). Interesting find.

I just verified that the GMDC is the lot imposter. Interesting, but not completely unexpected, that the lot imposter would contain some internal details.

This means that the lot imposter errors, like invalid terrain for basements and stepped roofs instead of curves, will exist in the model. It also implies that these errors might be able to be fixed in the model, then re-imported into the lot package. Of course, the errors would reoccur the next time that the lot is saved, but this technique might work for community lots which have lot imposters which are not regenerated.