Common Problems

[mikaboshi]

No doubt everyone of our designers here at ZA have run into one or more problems with creating. That is because problems are inevitable. Sometimes one letter can screw up an entire project, which can be very frustrating...unless you know where to look. Here we will discuss just a few of the most common ones. Please refer to this before you start a new thread or PM a current designer. Each problem will be discussed in a new post. The sample questions in each section are actual questions from beginning designers on ZA and ZT2DC.

This tutorial assumes that you have already read through APE II and are just needing clarification in some areas. It is not meant to be a standalone tutorial; it is merely a guide to help you should you encounter some problems. (Which, I won't lie, you will run into problems, especially, but not limited to, your first try.)

Thanks to Penguinman for his help on this.

[mikaboshi]

White icon, Game Crash

"I followed the directions exactly to APE 2, and when i fired up Zoo Tycoon 2, there was a blank white box instead of a animal icon. When i clicked on it, a window popped up saying that there was a error."

This is caused by a general misnaming of things in a variety of places. First lets head to the BFM file.

Open up the .bfm file using notepad. Now DO NOT do a find-replace thing. The first line will look something like this:

Code: [Select]

<BFM modelname="entities\units\animals\PenguinEmporer\PenguinEmporer_Adult_F.NIF">
Now replace the codename only on this line. Mine turned into:
<BFM modelname="entities\units\animals\PenguinAdelie\PenguinAdelie_Adult_F.NIF">.
The last thing to change is the line that looks like this: (you can use edit find to find it easily)

Code: [Select]

<Graph name="PenguinEmporer_Adult_F" version="1">
I changed it to: <Graph name="PenguinAdelie_Adult_F" version="1">.

Next up is the NIF file.
Open up the .nif file in WinHex and search for .dds. It will shoot you to a line that will be something like PenguinEmporer_Adult_F.dds. In a .NIF you have to use the same amount of letters as the original. So put the cursor on the first letter of the name, and start typing your codename. Once you reach the end of the original codename, stop, do not type over the “_Adult_F.dds”. You may end up with something like: penguinadel_Adult_F, where your codename does not fit. Another thing that may happen is you will have extra spaces to fill. Just put underscores here. So my penguin became: PenguinAdelie__Adult_F.dds. That fit with the extra underscore. Do this with all .nifs, there may be 2 or 3. Now you may have noticed that the .dds names in the .NIF corresponds with a .DDS file. .DDS files are the skins.

The DDS files
Now you have to change the name of the corresponding .DDS file to match whatever you made the line in the .nif files. The penguin has 2 .NIFs, a young and an adult. I changed the .dds file from PenguinAdelie_Adult_F to PenguinAdelie__Adult_F. I also changed another from PenguinAdelie_Young_F to PenguinAdelie__Young_F. Do not change any of the sick, dirty or sick_dirty files.

Now the XML files
Go back to entities/units/animals/ai. The first thing to do is go through every file and search for .dds. Do this and say find next in each file. Whenever you find a .dds file which seems to correspond with one of the skins in the main folder, check it to make sure it is correct. The most important ones to change are the ones that correspond to the files you had to change because of the .nif files.

[mikaboshi]

Animal has no skin

"why does my animal turn all white when placed"

This is a mismatch in the naming of files.

First up is the NIF file.
Open up the .nif file in WinHex and search for .dds. It will shoot you to a line that will be something like PenguinEmporer_Adult_F.dds. In a .NIF you have to use the same amount of letters as the original. So put the cursor on the first letter of the name, and start typing your codename. Once you reach the end of the original codename, stop, do not type over the “_Adult_F.dds”. You may end up with something like: penguinadel_Adult_F, where your codename does not fit. Another thing that may happen is you will have extra spaces to fill. Just put underscores here. So my penguin became: PenguinAdelie__Adult_F.dds. That fit with the extra underscore. Do this with all .nifs, there may be 2 or 3. Now you may have noticed that the .dds names in the .NIF corresponds with a .DDS file. .DDS files are the skins.

Now the DDS files
Now you have to change the name of the corresponding .DDS file to match whatever you made the line in the .nif files. The penguin has 2 .NIFs, a young and an adult. I changed the .dds file from PenguinAdelie_Adult_F to PenguinAdelie__Adult_F. I also changed another from PenguinAdelie_Young_F to PenguinAdelie__Young_F. Do not change any of the sick, dirty or sick_dirty files.

Now the XML files
Go back to entities/units/animals/ai. The first thing to do is go through every file and search for .dds. Do this and say find next in each file. Whenever you find a .dds file which seems to correspond with one of the skins in the main folder, check it to make sure it is correct. The most important ones to change are the ones that correspond to the files you had to change because of the .nif files.

[mikaboshi]

Animal not in menu

"I recently have been working on a dog for zt2, i followed the APE2 instructions but it woulden't show up in the game!!! Please Help!"

If this is the only problem you have with coding your first animal, give yourself a pat on the back! The problem here is that APE II is not entirely accurate - it has a few spots that are unclear or downright wrong. But, until someone takes out the time to change it or write a new one, that is the only real reference we have to offer.

The problem lies in the zipping of the folder. Instead of right clicking on your codename's folder (i.e., CraneAfricanCrowned), you need to go inside that folder, and highlight the four or five inside there (ai, entities, lang, ui and location if you made your own map icon) and right click when they are all selected, and hit "Add to Archive". Now you can name your file anything you want, but be sure to

1. Select ZIP not RAR as a compression method
2. end your file name in .z2f not ZIP

This should allow you to see your animal in the adoption menu. Make sure to test in Freeform/Sandbox mode though, so that you know you're animal is there.

[mikaboshi]

White Icons in Menu and Zoopedia

"I am having a problem with the in-game animal icon. It is white and has no picture and none of the zoopedia pictures are working"

This is a mismatch in the naming of your files and the paths that go to them. What you should do:

Open each of your XML files in Notepad, and search for "icon" by hitting Ctrl-F. Make sure that the path to the icon is correct in all of the files; sometimes the icon problem is that you have an animal who wants to use one icon for male and one icon for female. If both genders use the same icon, then you can just make sure that the icon path that looks something like

Code: [Select]

<img src=entities/units/animals/CraneAfricanCrowned/CraneAfricanCrowned_Adult_F_icon.dds"

is pointing to the same icon. If the genders have separate icons, you will have to make sure you recolored two icons and put both in the folder, and linked to them correctly in the XML files.

As for the Zoopedia, you need to open up your lang files and search for ".dds" You need to check the file names they are pointing to and make sure they are spelled right, or even exist. If your map location pic isn't working, make sure that the game actually came with that map. [member]Gloria[/member] has an excellent list of all of the locations in the game found here . If the location you want is NOT on this list, you need to refer to Penguinman's Map Location Tutorial and make your own. Note that the tutorial link will open up ZT2DC in a new window.

[mikaboshi]

Invisible Animal

"I have an animal... I made that when put onto the game everything works (zoopedia, image etc.) but...when placed can't be seen. I know that it is there because it shows up when I click the animals in the zoo icon and messages about its biome come up if I place it somewhere like a desert. Please help me!!!"

This is a problem with the BFM file.

Open up the .bfm file using notepad. Now DO NOT do a find-replace thing. The first line will look something like this:
 

Code: [Select]

<BFM modelname="entities\units\animals\PenguinEmporer\PenguinEmporer_Adult_F.NIF">
Now replace the codename only on this line. Mine turned into:
<BFM modelname="entities\units\animals\PenguinAdelie\PenguinAdelie_Adult_F.NIF">.

The last thing to change is the line that looks like this: (you can use edit find to find it easily)

Code: [Select]

<Graph name="PenguinEmporer_Adult_F" version="1">
I changed it to: <Graph name="PenguinAdelie_Adult_F" version="1">.

[mikaboshi]

Zoopedia Not Showing Up


"the name won't show up when I place an animal. It just says 1. There is nothing for zoopedia."

Anywhere the files say "zoopedia_codename" in any file, you must rename it to the codename in lower case. You can use capitals everywhere else, its just that when it comes to the zoopedia tag, it requires lowercase letters. There are four places this happens:

Once in the main XML: entities/units/animals/ai/codename
Once in the UI: ui/zoopedia/entries file
Twice in the LANG: lang/1033 file

Search for

Code: [Select]

zoopedia_
in each of the above files and make sure that the animal name is all small letters.


For clarification:
THESE ARE CAPITAL LETTERS
these are lowercase letters

[mikaboshi]

Zoopedia References Original Animal

"when I hit zoopedia it goes to the original animals even though there are entries for "them"

You've probably just overlooked a spot in the animals main XML file. Go to entities/units/animals/ai and open the main one in notepad. Then search for

Code: [Select]

zoopedia

and you will get to a part where it says:

Code: [Select]

s_Zoopedia="zoopedia:zoopedia_something
Change the "something" to your codename. Repeat in lang/1033