LZH and LHA

[JackVerheydt]

I think I posted this about a month ago, but I can't find it back, no matter where I look; perhaps it was removed. No scolding please, for I am an 80 years old amateur, and definitely no computer geek, freak or nerd, as you call it. It's hard enough to keep up with all you experts........

For several years now, I have been downloading some of the fantastic collection of objects (ships and planes)  from the addons presented in the several pages covering these on the Japanese Simutrans forum (http://japanese.simutrans.com/index.php?Addon128, and had the satisfaction of seeing them appear in our standard depots and a few lists that can be seen with the aid of keys &/) etc, where they are accessible to users. I have recently decided to start downloading many of their trains and trams, and some of their buildings, too, but here I encounter some problems, especially with addons such as buildings (which I hope to use later in a World Map in the area containing Japan).

With the trains and trams I have little trouble when they are in WinZip or WinRar, but unfortunately there are many items in .lhz, especially many Japanese train vehicles, with the use of whose unzipping programs I am not familiar, particularly lhz.  When you download them, they appear with a WinZip symbol in front, but when you try to open them, you are told that  .lzh requires the use of lha, which I do not have, let alone would know how to use. Who does ? Don't know why the Japanese cannot stick with the well-known and familiar unzipping programs mentioned above. Does lha stand for Alpha Zip perhaps, which you have to buy after a trial period, but I would not be able to figure out anyway how to use it on just those couple of dozen lzh files I have.

The other obstacle is that Simutrans has no "Depots" for such things as buildings etc., so I cannot make these addons visible somewhere from where I could access and use them in my landscapes. Unfortunately, I do not speak Japanese. Is there anyone among us who has experience with the Japanese Forum, uses it like I am trying to, and can give me some tips on how to make the non-vehicle objects visible and accessible for use ? Or a native Japanese who is sufficiently fluent in English, perhaps ? Many thanks (domo arigato gozei mashita I think)  in advance for any practical, useful, and detailed help I can get. I mean, I could buy Apha zip or some other program that's listed on the Internet, but I still would not know how to use it. I have Win.Zip and Win.Rar, but that does not do me any good. Sayonara, Jack Verheydt aka DonQuixote, who o fought against windmills, too..
P.S. I am using Simutrans version 110.0.1.

[Lmallet]

To answer your LZH question, I find WinRAR is better at handling LZH files (honestly I have stopped using WinZip a few years ago, WinRAR seems to be better at opening ZIPs as well).  And if I recall my early computing days (somewhere in the early 90s), LZH predates ZIP, and I am surprised people are still using it.  

To associate LZH files with WinRAR, open WinRAR, go to Options->Settings, and under the integration tab ensure that LZH is selected.

And to quote Wikipedia, "Although no longer much used in the West, LHA remains popular in Japan."

[alexbaettig]

Hi there, For opening the files you mentioned I've got something for you: http://www.stuffit.com/win-expander.html It should work. It does for me at least.
About that "Depots": If you change to public service player you should get somewhere (depends on pakset...) a button called Map Editor or simply Editor. It will only appear in public service! Open this and you'll find a button called "City Buildings builder" or something of the sort. There you get all the city buildings which are available in the pakset you're using. Otherwise if you don't find everything you looked for there try "Curiosity Builder" also in the Map Editor. There are all Curiosities... as the name suggests.
I can't help you however when it comes to translating Japanese... that's not (yet) in my language portfolio.
Hope that this helps you!

[DirrrtyDirk]

Your other thread was here:

http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=7385.0

[JackVerheydt]

Dear Dirrrty Dirk:
I have followed your instructions literally, and I just finished downloading a  lot of vehicles and buildings from the Japanese website. Then I unzipped them to my current pak.folder, (I have programs now for unzipping even the lzh.files) but only the vehicles and a very few buiklings will show up (no problem with the vehicles, but in the editor lists of the curiosities and buildings alI I got were a very few warehouses and other non-vehicles painted by a certain 713 (I think) or Suite. Nothing else. Forgive me for being dense, but how the h... do you get things like the skyscrapers, temples  and other buildings? They DON'T SHOW UP ANYWHERE, like other objects do. I have tried everything I know, which admittedly is not much. There must be something I should do or am doing wrong. Now please could you tell me how YOU do it, if you use the Japanese website at all ? ? Thank you very much in advance. A very frustrated Jack Verheydt aka Donquixote. (I admit I am not a computer expert.......)

[DirrrtyDirk]

Yes, I actually use that website.

For any non-player-building, e.g. skyscapers etc. (which are either city-buildings or attractions for the game), you need to switch to "public service" player, then choose "map editing tools" and there either "curiosity builder" or "build urban buildings", depending on what the building is coded as.

[JackVerheydt]

Dirrrty Dirk:
First of all, thanks for all your efforts to help me. I'm awfully sorry, but here we go again: I did exactly what you said, and then went over the lists of buildings and curiosities in Public Service, meticulously looking at the pictures one by one. The skyscrapers and such were not there. I did see a lot of smaller buildings that I do not think were there before, all painted by Raven, MHz and various other typical European names. But I cannot imagine Simutrans substituting those for the Japanese items somehow. I even looked at the industrial buildings.
The only Japanese items I recognized were Housing estate A,B,C,D and E,  warehouse a,b,c,d and e, Japanese apts (twice) and that's about it. Of the large buildings shown in the Japanese pages Building 1,2,3 and 4 (almost all of which I had downloaded and unzipped) and which DID show up in the pak 128 folder as such, WERE NOT THERE. No skyscrapers, stores, temples, nothing. I could try to send you whatever folders and subfolders you name of my savegames per YouSendIt, but you might not want me to. Thanks again just the same. Greetings, Jack.

[DirrrtyDirk]

Do you play with timeline? And in what year is your game currently? Maybe the buildings are not available then?

All I can tell you is: if you do it correctly, it works.

Sorry, no more time right now, but I will come back to this later during the day.

EDIT:

Here is a screenshot of some skyscrapers and their placein the menu.

[JackVerheydt]

Hi Dirrrk:

Beautiful. With a magnifying glass I noticed that you got it listed in Curiosities somehow. Exactly what I want, but how do you do it ? No, I tried Timeline only once, to see what it would do. Made no difference. And my game year is currently 2236. Jack.

[DirrrtyDirk]

Sorry, there isn't any secret trick to it. If you have copied the .pak files correctly into you pak-set folder (without any further subfolders!*), they should simply be there if you play without timeline. With timeline activated, you'd also need to uncheck the box "Use timeline year" (or check the "show obsolete" box) in the curiosity builder window, since most of these buildings are otherwise no longer available after the year 2100.


*) So if you look at let's say skyscrapers_MM (by 713), you need to have the 8 pak files from that .zip file directly in simutrans\pak128\...  - and not(!) in another subfolder like simutrans\pak128\skyscrapers_MM\...

There is nothing more I can tell you, I'm afraid. Do these things, do them carefully and correctly and it should work.