MikeyPI

Make sure that you include in the credits wherever you got the sources from if you did not make them, it's only fair to note you've converted them just like Itchboy did.

Issue#1 Merge the objects that are supposed to be part of the body, most vehicles have doors, though in your case the model won't support that without modification.  You can in fact export multiple objects at once, but that is done under a special option and not generally required by most modders.

Issue#2 it's inside out because the model was built in a program with different axial setup compared to zmod.  Flipping it actually tends to mirror the thing, so the right side is the left and the left side is the right, problem there is pretty obvious if the vehicle has differing sides.  Instead it's Display>Local Axes>Reset to Parent/Reset to World, then recalculate the normals, that usually resolves that problem.

Issue#3 has two causes.. One when you merge objects in zmod the axis location is "split" in the difference from the parts, meaning for example part1 is at the far extreme of the front bumper, and that is attached to the body which has the axis at the center of the body, the axis will then be moved to the middle-ground of those two parts being merged.  End result, the pivot axis isnt where it is supposed to be anymore.

When you mouse over the solid object in object mode, you will see large dot with arrows of varying colors coming out of the model, wherever that point is, is where the axis location of the model is for that object.  Simply moving the object in object mode will not resolve this, as the pivot will move with the object when moved in obj mode.. Instead you want to get that pivot centered to the axis of zmod (where X and Y intersect when zoomed out its the thicker + line created where they intersect).  Move the object around until the dot is centered to the middle of the viewport axis location, then once that is done in vertice mode move the model so that it's location is above the horizontal plane line at about the height where the car's ride height should be.   This will allow the model to "float" at that point in space instead of being sunken into the ground.  Make sure physics are enabled on the prototype as I believe it's custom setting and it should no longer sink into the ground.

Codec packs usually are found under the installed programs, things like K-lite codec pack, usually it will say it's providing codecs.. They are most commonly used to permit windows media player the ability to load videos it otherwise cannot load naturally.  I have K-lite installed and it does not interfere with my game, that being said mine is configured for my machine, other people may configure theirs differently and result in issues.  The statement you made about the intro video not showing leads me to believe it's a codec responsible more likely than not.

hrmm, do you happen to have codec packs installed on your computer?  That was known in the past to cause problems for some users with this game.  The only other thing you could try to do is to try another ver of directx/vb runtimes... I saw in your dxdiag you're running win8.1 so if it is a "clean" install it might be missing some things it needs to run older games well.

DX that em4 uses well.

http://forum.emergency-planet.com/files/file/613-microsoft-directx/

Visual Basic runtimes are scattered all over the internet, though highly unlikely to be the cause for your problems you're running into..

Most likely culprit is codec packs, perhaps also the version of directx could be at fault.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/auto-detect-tool

Run that and try updating the video card drivers for your card, also make sure that the AMD Catalyst software is up to date as well.

The trial version of zmod cannot import files, you have to own a registered copy of zmod for that feature to work.

We would require your dx diagnosis as well, goto start: run (win key+r win 8) and type in dxdiag, save that file when it compiles to your desktop and attach it here.

No, he was not, nor was NFK far as I can recall.  He only worked on NYC.

Is there any particular staff member who i should contact about copyrights?

All the moderators can handle such issues, but as nfk said if you don't want to have to use the PM features and directly contact a staff member, you can simply use the report function on either the topic or the author's profile and include the mod, what is believed to be offending within it, and if possible who's content it is (if applicable).  The more specific the reported issue, the faster/easier it will be to investigate for us, so anything that is believed noteworthy should be mentioned in that regard.  Realize it does take time to look into these things unless they're obvious (like lacking credits at all) so please be patient while we look into the more complex issues.

Even in the default game in my experience the plane would have a habit of "missing" the mark if it were close to the edge of the map.  I think it has to do with how the plane does it's "pass" that when it's on the edge it'll drop too soon or too late.  Not much they can do for that other than to limit the fire activity from going to the outer edges.

Ok, apparently this has gotten way out of hand.....

 

What I meant is that you don't need to keep asking me permission to use my MAPS and MODS, feel free to use them.  

 

I never said you don't need to give anyone credit or use OTHER PEOPLE'S creations without permission.

 

I think this is what has caused all the issues here.  You should always seek permission and always give credit where credit is due.  I have all the credits and permissions in all of the readme files for all the mods I have been a part of.

 

Many times people will message me and I either don't get the notification, or don't see if for weeks and sometimes months, so that is why I said it was ok to use my stuff without asking me, and giving a broad statement of "you have my permission".

 

I apologize for the way that message was received as I think that is what caused the whole issue between MikeyPi and myself.

That is your right as the creator of the content you're responsible for, if you want to allow it "free to use" without permissions required, with or without credit requirements for the parts you've done in them, you may choose to do so.  Where you believe that I somehow have an issue with you in particular, the issues that are currently abound are unfortunately in the community at large, not any one particular user.  The way your statement read, led to my mis-understanding it believing you intended all aspects of the mods, not just your parts within them, which is why I ultimately added the edited edition.  If I misunderstood your statement, my bad for that part of it, it may have been mis-interpreted, and your follow-up statement here states this was the case.

Most of the things that I've stated in this topic is directed to the community at large, correcting mis-information that people have regarding such issues, such as in regard to copyrights (while, a term we commonly use, the specific terminology is Intellectual Property).  I'm kinda hoping most people respect those who've made the things they use, but more than a "fringe" as of late has come forth with differing beliefs in this regards.  So as I said my statements while made in this topic, are ultimately for the community-at-large, not any one specific user, even if certain users bring up a statement which encourages me to make the statement.  I commonly "bundle" statements rather than speaking to any one person, when I do it tends to be pretty clear (usually quoted as I've done here).

Anywho, I hope people can get it straight and everything calms down, but we'll see and time will tell... I'd much rather not have to mediate all these things out and have the people involved discuss the matters themselves, but sometimes we gotta step in.. Take care, goodluck with whatever you may get into in the future.

Moderator note: I went ahead and merged your posts together, in the future when you've got something to add and nobody has posted since your last post, just go ahead and edit your existing post using the edit button found on the bottom right of your post.  We have a rule here that you can't post multiple times in a row (called double-posting).  So just use the edit button in the future if you've gotta add something and nobody has replied since your last posting.

I'm glad your desktop is stable for this game, so that's a perk for you at least, sorry your laptop isnt ideal but it sadly isnt to spec for the game (even with the game being old).  You can update the sound card if you wish, as I said they are very cheap parts to buy these days and most are pretty equal for regular sound systems.  Unless you get into the really really off-the-chart sound systems out there now, most will fit the bill for standard surround setups, just make sure that your computer has the required card slot (most likely PCI express PCIE) 24 bit is what you'd prefer for a sound card and that your speakers can be plugged into the card...  Really though if your existing one works, then in my book i'd just keep thing thing and make sure you've got the proper driver set for it.  Sound cards are one of those parts that from my experience generally don't die to easy and if they're doing the job, there isnt really a reason to replace it.  Far more often the speakers will go long before the card it's self starts failing.

Most people make the same mistake you've made jamn in assuming you require copyright protections to have protection, the truth is that what we do here is considered "intellectual properties" no different than a painting or a drawing would be.  Being that these items are artistic in nature, and given they're protected by copyrights from the actual owners of the factual equivalents, there is not a grounds for a copyright without licensing in place.  In our cases it's just intellectual properties which we have a claim to, and that is ultimately where the claims go for us, whether it be available for free, or for-profit it is protected under those same rights, not unlike software designers that provide their software free-to-use have end-user-license-agreements (ELUA) regardless of the software being provided as-is for free, our EULA's are in essence the documentation included with the original content..  Most people try to overcomplicate the issue, but there ya go as to where that goes, I believe that as a community in order to progress going forth, people have to recognize it's the original people's works, and ultimately respect their wishes (even if you don't agree with their views, it's theirs to do what they want to do).  Nobody that I know myself is wanting to make it to where nobody can use anything they've made at all, but they all want their wishes when it comes to their stuff respected, and that is ultimately where we're at with it.  Nobody in their right mind is going to do something for free, only to be stepped all over and ridiculed because they want their wishes respected, instead they can keep things private or just outright move on from this community.

In the end if someone wants to use something without having to worry about such things as crediting and permissions to use it, they simply can just privately do their alterations as people have in the past.  Nobody can prevent people doing works for themselves in private, and ultimately nobody should prevent that.  Most people want their wishes respected, for most that is crediting them for using it, for others it's asking permissions, in either case if you want to release it in public you should have these issues resolved before you go ahead and release it.

In truth when it comes to the "big picture" soundcards arent too important, just make sure that whichever you shop for is compatible with your applicable sound source (speakers).  If your speakers need special hookups, make sure your new one is compatible for it.. Other than that most sound cards made today are about on the same par as far as sound quality goes... Just different connection options, so make sure it's compatible with your speaker output when you shop for a new one... That being said, you don't need a sound card to test a game properly, so I'd go ahead and load the game on there as-is and make sure the game runs well on it before I invested in new parts for it.

Flipping it back to having the option to have more than one core just means more cores are available (which means more power available to use at once for it).  Putting it on one core in theory would increase stability as the game is designed for single-core processors (given when it came out that was what was available) but your processor doesnt have adequate power on one of 4 cores, if it were a dual core system it probably would have worked better for you.  Resetting the option to have more cores won't resolve the underlying issues for the game, you're perception is that something has changed, the reality is the only way something has changed is if the config file changed it's self to recognize the less power available on one core, not the system configuration.  You can check the config file for example or I can send you a "clean" one and put it into your game, either way, but ultimately the instability of your game is going to be present regardless to a single core (which means way less power for your system) or multiple cores.  

Your desktop is probably the best answer for your issues, your video card (amd HD) and processor combo are ultimately why you've encountered so many problems with this particular game.  Doesnt mean other games will have problems, but this game by it's very nature is way more demanding than it's age would suggest, part of the price of an un-optimized platform.

Your older machine while dated would probably suit your needs better than your laptop will. Overclocking your laptop to 2.7 from a 1.4 would probably be unwise as laptops arent known for great cooling systems anyway to begin with. Overclocking that far will likely result in shortened CPU lifespan if not outright cooking it from the cooling system being inadequate.

The only thing that is a bit low for your desktop is the ram, which is a very cheap easy fix if you've got a 64 bit OS, the nvidia card would be more suitable than the AMD HD chipset that your laptop has anyway(especially if it's not integrated and is a dedicated chipset), the processor is still better performance wise than the laptop is.  If I were you I'd use the desktop for EM4 and you'll probably have a better gaming experience.  Your laptop is by no means a "gaming" laptop, it's configuration has a good bit of ram included, outside of that everything else about it is inadequate for serious gaming. A good number of computers are frankly advertised as things they are not designed/built to do, most of the "gaming" laptops out there are insufficient for most current games out there, having a 1.4Ghz processor and an integrated video chipset alone places it into the "multimedia" laptop category, as I said with overclocking it you'll run the risk of cooking the processor unit, even if it lets you overclock it you'll likely hurt it's lifespan.

A tip moving forth is if you're into gaming, avoid the integrated chipsets, if you are into gaming you'd want a "dedicated" 3D chipset for your computers...  The Intel HD's and AMD HD's are for the most part meant for multimedia computers, even some of the Radeon and Nvidia chipsets are available as integrated chips, which ultimately perform similar to the Intel and AMD HD counterparts. These chipsets work well for web browsing, watching videos on the computer, and general windows tasks, but they are usually not great at rendering games, especially particles (like smoke), shadows, and dynamic lighting, and since most games make extensive use of all these things they tend to fall short of their dedicated counterparts.  I have an Intel  chipset, but the driver set that it uses along with the configuration of the system makes it capable of moderate gaming, but when compared to my dedicated chipset there is simply no comparison.

Totally agree with you. Guess we've gotta change some mindsets around here. Count me in.

 

 

True. I just got involved because want this tense atmosphere to go away. But yes, I totally agree with your post and understand your point of view. Let's hope this gets solved as swiftly as possible, I'll try to do my part.

I think most people want the tense atmosphere to go away, I'd be lying if I were to say everyone does, truth is there are many players running about right now with their own agendas out there that are relishing in the drama and taking any opportunity to stir the pot they can. Whatever their reasons are, they're the ones that need to take a step back and the community as a whole needs to cull those people in.  Hopefully this "push" that has came to the surface can be negated and people can manage to act more responsibly and respectful towards one another realizing that without people willing to make new things, there will be nothing to use in the future.  I hope that people can understand one another a bit more, take the time to understand how the other half feels, I for my part do not wish to see the community end up with nothing new to play with, nor do I wish to see things restricted to the point nobody can use anything, prior to the latest events it wasnt a problem to ask for permission to use and credit, hopefully we can find our way back to that place.

Those who want to use other's things should realize it's far less time to ask to use something and to credit as the author wishes compared to having to make new things yourself completely.

Those who make the things others wish to use should try to be reasonable about letting people use their stuff whenever possible.

Those who wish to consume the end-product of both should try to realize how they'd feel given the other people's perspectives.

Everyone should try to remain civil with one another and going forth try to respect one another a bit more, and try to look at one another's perspective before emotions get the best of them.

The majority of the "drama" would never come to pass if people were to just ask someone for something, in most cases they'll let you use it, unless as I've mentioned before you want to take it 100% as-is and do nothing to it, then people will rightfully so probably not be so willing to let it go under that pretense.  If you wanna use something, just ask, it's much easier to ask permission than to have to ask for forgiveness later (less ruffled feathers too).

Hopefully everyone moving forth can remember how things were around here, and try to work their way back to that place to make an atmosphere that is friendly to all people who wanna be here, while those who are just looking to stir up problems and cause issues will hopefully move along and find this community unwelcoming to such conduct and behavior, as we've always tried to maintain the drama-free atmosphere here, we don't want it now anymore than in the past.

To be honest the devs won't be able to help you very much if at all on this issue, they would likely point out to you that your system has a 1.4Ghz processor, where their system requirements are for a 1.7Ghz processor and call it quits at that point.

I am less inclined to go by the system requirements, as I have in many many instances ran games with less than recommended system performance, while it lagged a bit more than an optimum machine, it still ran it in spite of being less than the recommended requirements.  Your processor is a bit low, so it could be the culprit of the problems you encounter, especially if you have many things running in the background while playing.  A way you can check that is to open up the task manager, under the performance tab, while playing the game check what your CPU is running at in percent.  If it is nearly peaked at 100%, you've found your problem.  Ultimately to resolve it would require shutting down anything else that runs in the background that you possibly can.  Things like anti-viruses, web browsers, any third-party software that runs on the machine that is not essential to it's operation (IE if it aint windows, it should be terminated).  Outside of trying to do that type of deal and reduce the CPU load from other programs/apps while trying to play the game there really isnt any other solution that could help you.

Truth is, for my systems I've usually been .1-2 ghz shy when my system was able to run it anyway, the amd chipset may not have enough power at 1.4 to make up the difference, especially when coupled with the integrated video card coupled with it.  I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, but that's where you're at with your situation, coupled with the fact this game is pretty bad about optimization in of it's self, along with the underpowered processor is probably why you're having the issues you've having.

Try shutting down anything and everything you can in the background and hopefully that will make it to where you'll get a more reasonable timeframe of gameplay (around 30 minutes) before it falters or fails.

As of late people have felt compelled to mis-represent their works, which is where the rub comes into play.  Instead of saying yeah this guy (or in truth in most cases these people) created the base content I am using, and where applicable they ask to use it (which requires all the effort of writing the PM saying "hey can I use this for my modification".).  Most people feel they can take what they want from where they want, and totally disregard either asking permission or crediting people.  Truth is itchboy has it 100% correct when he says the german community is a different beast, the few germans who've graced us over the years, most of which decided to leave for much the same reason that we're having problems with once again.   It used to be a fringe group that would have such viewpoints that it was okey to take what you want and screw people over who actually made it, which is why there has never been a need for a "push" to stop the behavior.  Now however, it is commonly accepted by a much larger segment of the community for the sake of having new things to play with faster, which is 100% true that a reskin is massively faster than anything new like scripting or modeling from scratch.  

What people are missing is that the people who take the effort are frankly feeling pretty well disregarded in lieu of more stuff faster, which reduces their incentive to want to take the time to make new things.  Add on top of this the attitude that "hey they're persecuting me and trying to keep me down!" with the effort to sell a witch hunt mentality just further exacerbates the problems...  @Ghost, your concept of how you're seeing things is not as harsh, but has the same idea in mind, that the people complaining and those pursuing it on their behalf are the ones who need to change their ways, that somehow they are being too extreme in addressing these issues when in reality shouldnt it be those who are "new" or mis-informed that should be more willing to admit the wrongs they've committed since after all, if you do nothing wrong, there is no reason to have to involve you in such things?

People seem to be forgetting the ultimate problems that are going about right now, in other communities I've been involved in the way things worked were pretty simple, those that respected the people who made their lives easier by making the content available for them to use simply followed their requests when it came to crediting and permission, and in the end everyone was in a better position for having such content to use instead of having to make their own.  In this community a large faction wishes to make it to where "you should be grateful they're using your content and that people want it, so why should people be accountable to what you as the original creator wishes to have met to use it, the people want it! How dare you question the will of the people!".  Funny thing happens when that mentality takes hold and people start stepping on one another:  The guys who can take the time and effort to make new things, stop bothering to do it because they know not only will their wishes not be respected, but when they question it they're going to face ridicule and harassment because they're standing up for their time and effort.  It's a hobby, and by no means is anyone forced to do it, but the census is that somehow people should be grateful for being ripped off, when I can tell you every community that has developed that mentality has led to people being far more stingy with content (in most instances locking it so it cannot be altered in any way at all) or flat out moving on to other things. 

Whether people want to realize it or not is up to them, but there has to be a certain level of respect out there for one another in their efforts.  Reskinners do contribute to the community, but without the people making the content for them to reskin, they'd have nothing to work with in the first place.  If that is not understood and if people cannot consolidate that important fact and learn to respect the original guy's wishes, there are other fish in the sea as it goes and they can go onto greener pastures in other games, ones which are much newer and have a much larger following.  Remember one important fact:  If you've done nothing wrong, then it is impossible for you to have problems with such things, the funny thing about all of the accused cases I have had to be involved in:  Every one of them claimed innocence, not only claimed it but screamed it from the rooftops, and in the end for every one that I've had to address so far (which hasnt been many actually) they've all been 100% in the wrong and in fact did rip someone off.  The fact of ripping someone off is bad enough, but that coupled with the flat out denials of such behavior makes matters even worse.... Had these same people been honest and candid instead of defensive and trying to play the role of the "persecuted" the whole issue may have been resolved smoother than it was.  Because they opt to make things more difficult, it makes more things more difficult for all parties involved.  Accidental omission is one thing, but when you're trying to defend your position it makes it seem less accidental and more intentional by the minute.

In closing remember, if you're respectful of the original people and take the little bit of extra effort (which is far less than actually having to make it yourself) and figure out who made what and ask their permission to use it/credit them, then you'll not have anything to worry about.  If you opt to just use people's stuff "devil may care" style, then you're going to have problems, and those problems exist only because you've made them exist.  Nobody else is at fault for when you've taken it upon yourself to "short cut" by stealing other's stuff to do it, not the guys who's content you stole, nor the people who try to mediate it.  Most the time you can get permission to use people's stuff, the few exceptions are where you're cloning their stuff in 1/1 replicas (little to no alterations done to it), then I can understand, and I think most people can agree it's unfair for them to do all the work on a mod, someone else to take parts of it for a reskin mod and use them 1/1 as they are just because they can push a release sooner than you.  IE: I'm doing a chicago mod, someone else uses my chicago models/skins in their own rendition of a chicago area mod using other people's stuff mixed in with my stuff, thus saving them a ton of time and making my chicago mod not only redundant, but taking away any special traits it may have once had....  Someone taking my chicago model/skin and making it a florida skin falls into a diff category for my views.

Yeah it'd most likely be the recording that was your culprit.  I know when I used to record even with my better computer, recordings caused the performance to take a decent hit while it was running in the background.  I used FRAPS when I had to record, so I am sure there are better programs by now available to do it, but mine hurt on performance causing a bit of lag when it was recording, though in my case it did not totally crash it.  Perhaps if the lag got bad enough it could wreck a script or something.

Intel chipsets depending on which ones they are and what graphic drivers they use are unfortunately not created equal, some of the intel cards got the short end of the stick (esp ones modified by the computer manuf's) so not much can be done for them.  The original NY mod was pretty light on performance requirements so unless the lights are off the chart bad they should still be pretty stable on most computers even with increased lighting.  If it crashes alot for you, you can try removing the floor radiation from the light patterns, since they seem to cause the most performance hit of the lighting options in the game.

I have seen pictures of the ford ambulances, though I myself have not seen them whenever I've been through DC either, but it's one of those things you don't notice I guess unless you care.  But I have seen pictures of the fords along with the international ones parked together, so they do have both, I just don't know what they use them for (if there is any difference to them).

Your other post was actually unaltered just a note added to the bottom of it stating the truth in the matter, not what you want to believe it to be.  Frankly opinions like that is exactly why nobody wants to take the time to create new content anymore, all everyone wants is to have their efforts respected, but ultimately that is apparently too much to ask and people feel the need to justify stealing other's efforts.  If you don't want to be here anymore, then feel free to leave the site, but not liking what you have to say has very little to do with it.

If everyone respected one another, things could be different, but that's not what certain people want to have happen.  The funny thing about the drama you speak of, is that you yourself are attempting to create more of it.. You can feel free to compose a message or not, that is up to you, but to each their own right.

Have fun moving forward. Perhaps you will learn to respect people later on for the time and effort they put into things instead of justifying ripping them off, though I highly doubt that you'll change unless you yourself take the time and effort and do things to have others disrespect your wishes with regards to it.

Then I'm outta ideas as to why your game is unstable, especially since it's doing the reverse of what most people's game does when it has performance problems.  Usually mods make them worse, in your case it seems more unstable with the default game.  Given that it's the steam version I am at a loss as to what else can be done to help you out.  Your computer isnt optimal for gaming, but usually switching the power settings to "high performance" will offset the laptop issues to a point, though with this game it can be very fickle with certain computer configurations more than others.  Maybe someone else can think of something but for me I'm out of ideas on what to do to help you out if none of the ideas I've given helped even a bit.

1). Use amd catalyst to override the game's configurations and use what the catalyst wants it to.

2). Try running on one processor core instead of all of your cores.

3). Ensure you are on "high performance" for your power profile (found in windows under the battery icon) instead of balanced or power saver.

4). Lowering the game's settings to be less demanding on your video card.

If none of that has helped even a bit, you can try to update the video card drivers, but that's probably not going to make much of an impact, nor would trying different directx versions since the game does load even if it is unstable as it is running.

In all three instances it's abruptly terminating, ironically both mods are making it further than the default did, with far more usage for both of those before it went kaput.

So that part of it is strange to me..

You can check under the amd catalyst control panel and see if you can change the settings to override the application's defaults, force it to use settings which you choose via the amd control panel may increase stability... The other option for you to attempt to do is to run the game on one core:

http://forum.emergency-planet.com/topic/9704-how-to-run-the-game-on-one-core/

Some people say this increases stability, but I've never had to do it myself.  Guess it depends on the particulars of the processor unit.