How To Create Custom Details In BAT
By Joseph Knight

The magic of BAT is in the decals. You can take the most basic building form, and if you add your windows, doors and trim in an effective and imaginative way, your building will truly stand out. BAT comes with a few basic decal sets that can take you far. But if you feel like something is missing, then these instructions are for you.

What you'll need is any graphics program for creating and editing 2D pixel art that support the Targa (.tga) graphics format. (Windows Paint accessory will NOT work for this reason.) There are many shareware and freeware programs online that you can download that will work. If you want to make parts of your decals transparent, then you'll need a higher-end program like JASC's Paint Shop Pro (PSP) or Adobe's PhotoShop.

Quick Start

You can quickly make custom decals without having to go through the detailed process covered in the rest of this document by making changes to the decals that come with BAT. Maybe you want your white window frames to be yellow or your door to be green, but you don't see what you want in the Detail Palette. Then try these steps:

  1. Copy the decal files (.tga format) you would like to change from the directories \\Maxis\SimCity 3000 Building Architect\Res\Details\Traditional\ or ...\Res\Details\Contemporary to the directory \\Maxis\SimCity 3000 Building Architect\Details\. You might need to browse through them a while to find the ones you want.
  2. CHANGE THE NAME OF THE COPIED FILE. Otherwise, it won't show up on your palette because of duplicate file names.
  3. Open these copied decals in your graphics program.
  4. Paint over the images with the new colors. You might also try adjusting the colors; PSP: "Colors," "Adjust." PhotoShop: "Image," "Adjust," "Hue/Saturation."
  5. Save the files in Targa (.tga) format, and restart BAT. If PSP or PhotoShop don't offer .tga format as an option, try "Save a Copy As..." instead of just save.
  6. In the Detail Mode Palette, look in the "custom" directory. There, you should see your new decals. The areas that were transparent before will remain that way even after your changes.

Expert Decals

File requirements

If you are creating new decal files from scratch, there are a few guidelines you need to follow to ensure that the files will load properly into BAT. If you don't follow these rules, you may not see your decals in the palette, or worse -- BAT may not function!

  • Decals must have a height and width that is some multiple of 16 pixels on a side. For example, 16x16, 32x32, 48x48, 16x32, 32x48, etc. Look for image size options on your graphic program's menu to correct your image size.
  • Decals must have a "bit-depth" of 32 bits. Not all graphics programs allow you to create new files like this (which is why we recommend PSP and PhotoShop); if it does, you might see it as an option when you save your file for the first time. This is also one reason we suggest editing decals that come with BAT – they are already 32-bit and most graphics programs will not alter this even if they are edited and re-saved.
  • Transparent areas of your decal must be assigned in an "alpha channel." This also is something that not all editors support. The rest of this document will detail how to create alpha channels in the two editors we recommend.
  • You will need to close BAT and reopen it for any new decals to appear in the palette.

Transparent alpha channels in PSP (version 5.0)

  1. Create a new file. Make sure that it is a "legal" pixel size (see above) and that it uses "1.6 million colors (24-bit)."
  2. Create your decal, whether by painting from scratch or pasting in an image you've copied from elsewhere.
  3. Now, choose absolute black (RGB: 0, 0, 0) as your current color, and paint the areas of your decal that you want to be transparent.
  4. On the menu at the top, select "Masks," "New," "From image..." In the dialog that pops up, make the source window "This Window" and create the mask from "any non-zero value." Click OK, and the black areas of your image will change to a gray checkerboard.
  5. On the menu at the top, select "Masks," "Save to Alpha Channel..." Accept the default options and name the channel anything you like.
  6. Save the file in Targa (.tga) format to the directory \\Maxis\SimCity 3000 Building Architect\Details\.

(A special SimThanks to Lynn Bydalek "Couch Potato" for helping us understand Paint Shop Pro!)

Using Photoshop

  1. Create a new file. Make sure that it is a "legal" pixel size (see above) and that it uses "RGB" color mode. "Contents" can be white or transparent and it can be any resolution, although 72 pixels/inch is recommended.
  2. In the Layers window, create a New Layer. (Click and hold the right-pointing arrow on the upper-right corner of the Layers window for a menu.)
  3. In the new Layer, create your decal, whether by painting from scratch or pasting in an image you've copied from elsewhere.
  4. When you are done painting your decal, go to the menu and choose "Select," and "All" to select the entire image. Then "Edit" and "Copy" from the menu or CTRL+C to copy the entire image.
  5. In the Layers window, select the "Channels" tab (or on the menu, "Windows," "Show Channels").
  6. Create a New Channel (use the same arrow menu as for New Layer). Accept the defaults for the name and "masked areas." A new Alpha channel will appear in your Channels window; by default it will be black and current.
  7. On the top menu, select "Edit," and "Paste." This will paste a grayed version of your decal on top of the black alpha channel.
  8. Make white (RGB: 255, 255, 255) your current color. With the pasted selection still active, select from the top menu "Edit" and "Fill," and use "foreground color" (which should be white).
  9. You might want to double check that your Alpha layer is aligned with your RGB layers -- "Paste" is not always accurate. Make both channels visible and moved the entire alpha channel as needed.
  10. If you want parts of your decal to blend in with the background paint on the BAT building (i.e., semi-transparent), then use a gray color in the alpha channel instead of white. The darker the gray, the more the background will show through.
  11. Under "File," select "Save a Copy..." Save the file in Targa (.tga) format to the directory \\Maxis\SimCity 3000 Building Architect\Details\.

After you've created your own custom details, be sure to share your buildings with the rest of us on the Building Exchange!