construction mod tutorial

Allow me to welcome you to the world of modders,

First, take note of this
You will find many of the answers to your questions here:
Document in English for Cities XXL
Steam Community :: Guide :: [OFFICIAL] Artist Technical Document

Here is a link of the same document translated into Portuguese.
Google Translate

I will answer the other questions later in the day!
See you later

 

Q: 1:

This is one of the first questions to ask.
1/ What type of buildings am I going to do?
A T1, T2, T3,?

2/For what function?
A house? A business ?, An office? An industry? or another?


-------------------------------- EXAMPLE--------------------

Take this model :

Like this model, the vast majority of buildings only need 4 files + a localization:

- 1/ A file for the 3d model => data\gfx\building\h_allfri01_t1.sgbin




- 2/ A seed file => data\design\buildings\residence\h_allfri01_t1.class

- 3/ A file for the layout = > data/Design/Layout/H_AllFri/h_allfri01_t1_all.layout

- 4/ A file for the thumbnail => data\interface\ddstexture\buildings\h_allfri01_t1.dds


- 5/ A file for localizations => data\localization
Below is a tutorial for the localization file.
Tutorial - Language Localization Files



Q: 2:

The number of inhabitants in a house or building and defined by size, T1, T2, T3, possibly T4
You will find more answers to this in the guide "[OFFICIAL] Artist Technical Document" (see previous post)

Q: 3:

You will find the answer in the guide "[OFFICIAL] Artist Technical Document" (see previous post)

Q: 4:

The guide mainly expresses two basic sizes:
- 40 meters x 40 meters
- 60 meters x 60 meters
It's two sizes are perfect to respect the strategic aspect of the game.

However, exceptionally the game (and the guide) offers more or less large sizes.
Then if you want to create smaller or larger base sizes, this is quite possible.

You will need to adapt the format (size) of the textures to the size of your buildings.

A texture format that is too large for a small building base will make a "Model.SGBIN" too heavy for the game.
And so will slow down your game.

Conversely, a large building with a small texture format will create a building with a pixelated texture.
It's up to you to find the right compromise, with the help of the "[OFFICIAL] Artist Technical Document" guide.


Q: 5:

1/ Your modeling project must be exported in .FBX format

2/Then open "Artist Tool Suite (Build 10.4.0.15)" You will find "Artist Tool Suite (Build 10.4.0.15)" here: "C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Focus Home Interactive \ Artist Tool Suite \ Viewer \ Viewer.exe"
"Artist Tool Suite (Build 10.4.0.15)" is the tool allowing to transform your "Model.FBX" into "Model.SGBIN"
It is this "Model.SGBIN" that the game Cities XXL displays ingame

 

I leave it to you to read my previous posts, and I suggest that we start together with a simple residential building T1 or T2, in order to put it into play.

To get started we need to define the name of the model.
I'll leave it to you to come back to me when you're ready.

PS: although there is a lot of information to read, don't worry I will help you and it will remain relatively simple.