sc4-more-building-styles

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sc4-more-building-styles

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A DLL Plugin for SimCity 4 that allows the game to use more than 4 building styles.

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# sc4-more-building-styles

A DLL Plugin for SimCity 4 that allows the game to use more than 4 building styles.

This DLL mod is intended as a dependency for other mods that add new building styles beyond the 4 that Maxis included,
it does not add any building styles to the game by itself.

Maxis programmed the Building Style Control UI to only recognize the check boxes of the 4 built-in styles,
no matter how many check boxes are actually present.
This mod patches the game's memory to remove that restriction.

## Adding More Building Styles into SC4

The building style IDs are assigned in the [SimCity 4 Building Styles Index](https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/763276-building-styles-master-iid/) thread, you will need to use the
existing styles or request your own building style ID range in that thread.

### Modifying the Building Styles UI

The easiest way to get started is to download the Building Style UI template, but you can also create your own Building Style Control override plugin.

#### Building Style UI Template

A UI template is available [here](https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36962-building-style-control-ui-for-the-building-styles-dll/), which supports all of the [new controls](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/docs/Building_Style_UI_Controls.md) the DLL adds.    
The UI Template can be configured using either [BuildingStyles.ini](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles#buildingstyles-ini-file) or the [Building Style exemplars](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/docs/Building_Style_Exemplars.md).    
Once you have configured your styles in _BuildingStyles.ini_ or the style exemplars, see the section below on assigning buildings to custom styles.

#### Creating a Custom Building Style UI

1. Create a patch that overrides the default Building Style Control UI, TGI `0x00000000,0x96a006b0,0x6bc61f19` in `SimCity_1.dat`.    
2. Edit the UI to add the style check boxes, and optionally the [new check boxes and radio buttons](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/docs/Building_Style_UI_Controls.md) that the DLL supports.
The check box or style ID (e.g. `0x2003`) identifies the building style to the game.  
3. See the section below on assigning buildings to custom styles.

### Adding Buildings to Custom Building Styles

This process is performed with ilive's Reader or PIMX.

The building's intended styles should be added to the building exemplar using the _Building Styles_ property (property id 0xAA1DD400).
The building will only grow when one or more of the custom or Maxis styles in that property is selected in the game's UI.
The DLL will ignore the building styles in the _Occupant Groups_ property (property id 0xAA1DD396) when the _Building Styles_ property is present.

For compatibility with players who are not using the DLL, the Maxis styles in the _Occupant Groups_ property should be left alone.
If you are creating a new building, add the _Building Styles_ property for users with the DLL and set the _Occupant Groups_ property to one
or more of the 4 Maxis styles for users without the DLL.

For Wall-to-Wall (W2W) buildings, add the _Building Is Wall-to-Wall_ property (property id 0xAA1DD401) to the building's exemplar with the
value set to _true_.
If the _Building Is Wall-to-Wall_ property is not present or the value is set to false, the building will be treated as non-W2W.

See the _Building Styles Exemplar Property (0xAA1DD400)_ and _Building Is Wall-to-Wall Exemplar Property (0xAA1DD401)_ sections for more details.

## New Building Exemplar Properties

The DLL adds the following exemplar properties to configure the custom building styles.

### Building Styles Exemplar Property (0xAA1DD400)

This property allows the custom building styles to be specified separately from the Maxis styles
in the Occupant Groups property (0xAA1DD396).

#### Residential and Commercial Buildings

When the property is present, the building will use custom styles specified in the property and ignore
the styles in the Occupant Groups property (0xAA1DD396).    
When the property is not present, the building will use the custom and Maxis styles specified in the
Occupant Groups property (0xAA1DD396).

#### Industrial Buildings

When the property is present, the building will use custom styles specified in the property.    
When the property is not present, the building will be treated as compatible with all styles.

### Building Is Wall-to-Wall Exemplar Property (0xAA1DD401)

This is a Boolean property, a value of true indicates that the building is W2W.
If the value is false or the property is not present, the building will not be considered W2W.
This is the preferred method for identifying W2W buildings that do not already have one of the W2W occupant groups.

## Building Style Check Box Tool Tips

The individual building styles can have a tool tip that describes the style when the user hovers over that check box.

When defining styles in a Building Style exemplar, the tool tip can be set with the _Building Style Exemplar: ToolTip Key_ property.
For styles that are defined in BuildingStyles.ini, the tool tips must use the LTEXT group id `0x3EE5B610` with the style id as the LTEXT instance id.

The group id supports the standard language offset scheme.
For example, the 0x2004 building style in would use the following TGI in German: `0x2026960B, 0x3EE5B614, 0x00002004`.

Tool tips can optionally have a title in addition to a body, this is done by placing both on a single line with a pipe separator.    
For example, `ToolTip Title|Tool tip body`.   
Note that how the game displays tool tips with both a title and body will depend on the user's game settings.
If the user has unchecked the _expanded tooltips_ check box in the play options dialog, the game will display the tool tip
title (if present) or the body, but not both.

## Building Style Exemplars

These exemplars provide a way for building style mods to define the style check boxes without requiring the user
to edit _BuildingStyles.ini_.

See the [Building Style Exemplars](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/docs/Building_Style_Exemplars.md) page for more information.

## Cheat Codes

The plugin provides the following cheat codes:

`ActiveStyle` shows an in-game message box with the ID of the currently active style when
`Change building style every N years` is selected. When `Build all styles at once` is selected, using this cheat will
display a message saying that mode is active.

`DebugActiveStyles` writes the currently enabled style IDs to the plugin's log file.

`MaxisDebugRCIGrowth` is a restored development cheat that allows the user to toggle the per-tract RCI growth debug logging that is part of the game's _Query.txt_ log file.
This logging shows the last successful and failed RCI builds for each tract, along with a status table containing the total number of lots the game tried to build.
The columns of the status table list abbreviations of the tract developer function names, while the rows list the error status of each function. The cell values are
the total number of lots meeting that status.   
This cheat requires the simulation to run for a while after activating it in order for the game to start tracking RCI construction.
The game will only write the _Query.txt_ log file if the Extra Cheat DLL is installed, then you must query a lot while holding down `Control + Alt + Shift`
and close the query dialog.
The log file will be written to the Apps folder that contains the SimCity 4 executable.

`MaxisIgnoreRCIGrowthCaps` is a restored development cheat that allows the user to toggle making the game ignore the power, water, park effect, and fire coverage
caps for growable RCI buildings. This is a superset of the existing `FightThePower` and `HowDryAmI` cheats for ignoring power and water caps.
Like `FightThePower` and `HowDryAmI` the cheat code's state is persisted in the save game.

Additionally, the DLL modifies the `FightThePower` and `HowDryAmI` cheat codes to allow them to be toggled off by re-entering the cheat code.

## BuildingStyles INI File

This file allows styles to be defined without editing the Building Style Control UI file.
When the check box button ids for the Building Style Control are in the range of 0-127, these ids can be mapped to a
specific style and style name in _BuildingStyles.ini_.

The style entries are placed under a _BuildingStyles_ section and use the following format:
```
<UI button id> = <style id>,<style text format>[,<style name>]

<UI button id> is a style check box id in the range of 0-127.
<style id> is the building style id assigned in the Building Style Index, or
the text Show (case-insensitive) to display a disabled placeholder check box.
<style text format> is one of the following values: N (normal text) or B (bold text).
<style name> is optional, when present it uses one of the following formats:
<name> or CaptionRes:<LTEXT group id>,<LTEXT instance id>.
If <style name> is not present, a default name will be used.

Examples:

0 = 0x2005,B,Mediterranean & Tropical
1 = 0x2006,N,CaptionRes:0x6a231eaa,0x6bbbd875
2 = Show,N,Placeholder Check Box
3 = Show,B
```

## SC4MoreBuildingStyles INI File

This file contains settings that control whether the growable debug logging code will write to the plugin's log file.
It is recommended that you only enable these options for experimentation. They will slow down your game and quickly produce
a large log file.

As an example from one of my tests, a 22 second run with the _BuildingStyleSelection_ and _LotStyleSelection_ options enabled 
produced a ~2 MB log file with ~15,500 lines.

## Lua Functions

The DLL provides a number of building style related functions for use by Lua scripts.
See [building_style.lua](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/dat/building_style.lua) for a list of the provided functions,
and [building_style_tests.lua](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/dat/building_style_tests.lua) for examples of their use.

## For DLL Modders

This DLL provides several types for use by other DLL plugins, see the [documentation](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/blob/main/docs/For_DLL_Plugins.md) for more details.

## Download

The plugin can be downloaded from the Releases tab: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-more-building-styles/releases

## System Requirements

* SimCity 4 version 641
* Windows 10 or later
* [Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 x86 Redistribute](https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe)

The plugin may work on Windows 7 or later, but I do not have the ability to test that.

## Installation

1. Close SimCity 4.
2. Copy _SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dll_, _SC4MoreBuildingStyles.ini_, _SC4MoreBuildingStyles.dat_, and _BuildingStyles.ini_ into the top-level of the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory or Documents/SimCity 4 directory.
3. Start SimCity 4.

## Troubleshooting

The plugin should write a `SC4MoreBuildingStyles.log` file in the same folder as the plugin.    
The log contains status information for the most recent run of the plugin.

# License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3.0.    
See [LICENSE.txt](LICENSE.txt) for more information.

## GZCOM Classes Provided by This DLL

The public interface headers for the GZCOM classes that this DLL provides for use by other SimCity 4 DLL plugins
are separately licensed under the terms of the MIT License (https://opensource.org/license/mit).   
These headers are located in the src/public/include folder.

## 3rd party code

[gzcom-dll](https://github.com/nsgomez/gzcom-dll/tree/master) - LGPL 2.1 or later License.   
[sc4-dll-utilities](https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-dll-utilities) - LGPL 2.1 or later License.   
[Windows Implementation Library](https://github.com/microsoft/wil) - MIT License    
[SC4Fix](https://github.com/nsgomez/sc4fix) - MIT License.    
[SafeInt](https://github.com/dcleblanc/SafeInt) - MIT License   
[Frozen](https://github.com/serge-sans-paille/frozen) - Apache 2.0 License.

# Source Code

## Prerequisites

* Visual Studio 2022
* `git submodule update --init`
* [VCPkg](https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg) with the Visual Studio integration

## Building the plugin

* Open the solution in the `src` folder
* Update the post build events to copy the build output to you SimCity 4 application plugins folder.
* Build the solution

## Debugging the plugin

Visual Studio can be configured to launch SimCity 4 on the Debugging page of the project properties.
I configured the debugger to launch the game in a window with the following command line:    
`-intro:off -CPUcount:1 -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32`

You may need to adjust the resolution for your screen.

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