ISSUE: How to add a preview image and icon to your 3D Mod

[Jenkins87]

@T.P.B.
Thanks for your awesome work, extensive guide, but I understand the reasons behind the length (as it's a complicated issue)

@FX2K
See if I've got this right;
You created a blank asset template that you use to start a "New" asset with by using that tiny ghost model,
Then you create your real asset after importing the ghost model at tiny scale, in the 'building' editor, no matter what kind of asset you are making? (Including intersections?)
And that's it?

Also are there any chances of the ghost model creating "Slope too steep" hassles?

Thanks again

EDIT: I've read this thread and T.P.B's guide 4 or 5 times, and I think I get the gist of the process now, both short and long methods.

My next question is, will this only work for NEW assets? T.P.B's guide make it sound like you can only add these icons to new assets you create, but I'm unclear whether or not you can "import" things like intersections into the building editor, and then resave with the new icon?
Or does this mean a new asset has to be created to replace the old ones we've already made? And if so, I'm assuming these new assets can't overwrite your existing ones in order for the Workshop item to Update, instead of creating a dupe item in the Workshop?

 

[FX2K]

@T.P.B.
Thanks for your awesome work, extensive guide, but I understand the reasons behind the length (as it's a complicated issue)

@FX2K
See if I've got this right;
You created a blank asset template that you use to start a "New" asset with by using that tiny ghost model,
Then you create your real asset after importing the ghost model at tiny scale, in the 'building' editor, no matter what kind of asset you are making? (Including intersections?)
And that's it?

Also are there any chances of the ghost model creating "Slope too steep" hassles?

Thanks again

Whilst I do create an asset template, its only because for a lot of my assets they use the same settings, settings which are not exposed via the asset editor which I have to hex edit to change. When choosing this template, all edited settings are retained for any further files I create, so no need to keep hex editing.

The simplest way (with the invisible model files in place) is

Create/Edit the _thumb.png file for the icon as desired, then In game:

• New Asset
• Choose Building
• Choose Relevant Category / Template
• Import invisible model rather than template default (this is where the icon imports)
• Create asset and save.

Rinse / Repeat.

As for slope too steep problems, I haven't tried interchanges, but I very much doubt it would cause such issues.

 

[TPB]

Actually I've just realized my thought process was flawed, there is no real need to make the assets twice in any case.

FX2K's process is exactly all you need to do.

Even if you want to add custom icons:

I repeat FX2K's steps with some notes.

• New asset (same as above)
• Pick building (same as above)
• Choose Relevant Category/Template (But you have to pick one that has an icon already, at least from my tests, or it wont necessarily work)
• Import invisible model rather than template default(this is where the icon imports) (just attach any placeholder icon for now)
• Create asset and save

And then, contrary to what I stated in the guide, you can now repeat the above steps, but select the asset you created previously as a template, since it has a working thumbnail now, tick import props and decorations, attach the correct icon that can be a screenshot of the item; and just save it with final name again... and youre done.

Duh. I'm silly. I'll update the guide lol.

 

[Jenkins87]

Whilst I do create an asset template, its only because for a lot of my assets they use the same settings, settings which are not exposed via the asset editor which I have to hex edit to change. When choosing this template, all edited settings are retained for any further files I create, so no need to keep hex editing.

The simplest way (with the invisible model files in place) is

Create/Edit the _thumb.png file for the icon as desired, then In game:

• New Asset
• Choose Building
• Choose Relevant Category / Template
• Import invisible model rather than template default (this is where the icon imports)
• Create asset and save.

Rinse / Repeat.

As for slope too steep problems, I haven't tried interchanges, but I very much doubt it would cause such issues.

Wow nice thanks for this @FX2K

I have pretty much got the hang of this now thanks to both of you without having to load and reload the game 50 thousand times (with this many mods installed, loading a new game or asset editor takes many mins)

And here I was thinking I would get some work done away from CSL today... Lol

Actually I've just realized my thought process was flawed, there is no real need to make the assets twice in any case.

FX2K's process is exactly all you need to do.

Even if you want to add custom icons:

I repeat FX2K's steps with some notes.

• New asset (same as above)
• Pick building (same as above)
• Choose Relevant Category/Template (But you have to pick one that has an icon already, at least from my tests, or it wont necessarily work)
• Import invisible model rather than template default(this is where the icon imports) (just attach any placeholder icon for now)
• Create asset and save

And then, contrary to what I stated in the guide, you can now repeat the above steps, but select the asset you created previously as a template, since it has a working thumbnail now, tick import props and decorations, attach the correct icon that can be a screenshot of the item; and just save it with final name again... and youre done.

Duh. I'm silly. I'll update the guide lol.

Very nice!

And no not silly at all, this is why this community kicks some serious ass. Just like the game, it's all about trial and error

I'm about to start the creation of some icons for my prefabs, hopefully without having to recreate them!

Unfortunately at the moment though, I have a pretty serious bug in 1.07 which doesn't allow me to bulldoze elevated roads/paths from previously saved assets. They can be added to, but the new additions also become un-bulldozable after you save and reload that asset for further editing.

Thanks again guys, there goes my day lol

 

[FX2K]

And then, contrary to what I stated in the guide, you can now repeat the above steps, but select the asset you created previously as a template, since it has a working thumbnail now, tick import props and decorations, attach the correct icon that can be a screenshot of the item; and just save it with final name again... and youre done.

Duh. I'm silly. I'll update the guide lol.

Not silly good idea.

And yes, you are correct in that some templated don't work properly, empty park for instance won't show up ingame.

 

[TPB]

I think you will still need to rebuild them for existing assets that don't have a functioning icon already. S I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure I tested it. If you pick an asset that doesn't have an icon as a template, it wont work. Feel free to test and prove me wrong though

 

[Jenkins87]

I think you will still need to rebuild them for existing assets that don't have a functioning icon already. S I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure I tested it. If you pick an asset that doesn't have an icon as a template, it wont work. Feel free to test and prove me wrong though

That's fair enough, I won't complain about this because I understand why it is that way... But I'll definitely try it!

Generic question though, can you overwrite existing workshop-shared assets with newly created ones by using the same name (and also removing old file first), and then doing an "Update" from the Content Manager?

Basically I don't want my subs to have to source and download a new version of the asset, just to get a slightly updated version of it... I would also understand if this isn't technically possible, because it seems the game generates a unique ID for each asset, referenced in the Snapshots folder by GUID strings...

One of my prefabs surpassed 1000 subs overnight, and I really would like to fix it along with all my others, however I don't want to lose subs, and I also don't want people using an outdated version of the asset....

 

[FX2K]

To update :

1. Build your new asset and save it with the same details as before.
2. From content manager, find the shared one (which you should be subscribed to) and click update, but don't publish it yet...
3. Before clicking publish, since it won't do what you think (it uploads the ws version) click the tiny folder icon in the lower corner of the preview image window.
That will open a workshop staging folder with PreviewImage.png and a Content folder

4. Open a new explorer window and locate your NEW version of the file, these will be in the following folder (paste in the address bar):
%appdata%\..\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Assets

5. Copy the file from the Assets folder into the staging folders Content subfolder, overwriting when prompted.
6. Now back in the game you can click publish and it will upload the new version of the file.

 

[Jenkins87]

To update :

1. Build your new asset and save it with the same details as before.
2. From content manager, find the shared one (which you should be subscribed to) and click update, but don't publish it yet...
3. Before clicking publish, since it won't do what you think (it uploads the ws version) click the tiny folder icon in the lower corner of the preview image window.
That will open a workshop staging folder with PreviewImage.png and a Content folder

4. Open a new explorer window and locate your NEW version of the file, these will be in the following folder (paste in the address bar):
%appdata%\..\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Assets

5. Copy the file from the Assets folder into the staging folders Content subfolder, overwriting when prompted.
6. Now back in the game you can click publish and it will upload the new version of the file.

All good! I've been working on one before you posted this update...

All i have to say is amazing! Great Success!

Now to see if my over-written save will be able to update the existing workshop item (fingers crossed!)

Thanks again for all your efforts @FX2K and @T.P.B.

Couple of things I've noticed though you might want to be aware of;

The "import" dialogue ingame doesn't recurse folders, you may have already tried this but straight off the bat I tried to create a sub folder in the Import folder to tuck your AssetTemplate in, this didn't work, but amazingly what DID work was I moved the files out of the sub folder while the game was still running, pressed "Back" on the import screen to go back to list of assets, then I chose an icon-ised one, and hey presto, the AssetTemplate.fbx was immediately visable, without restarting the game!

Next up, getting those background images to work.

My guess is the process would be similar, but does anyone know the naming convention of the background images? If icons are *_thumb, would the background be *_background? Maybe *_bg or *_art or something to that effect?

Oh and just from experiencing the process of creating an icon now, I think it's safe to say creating icons for previously saved assets is probably not possible, but I'm moments away from testing if a newly created save, that overwrites a previous one, will be updatable in the workshop.

 

[Jenkins87]

Now to see if my over-written save will be able to update the existing workshop item (fingers crossed!)

That's a negatory.

This is what I tried;

1. Followed steps as above, overwrote previous asset that didn't have a working icon
2. In the content manager, I pressed "Share" next to the overwritten asset
3. I copied and pasted the title and description directly from the old item, as to make sure not to create a dupe (in theory)
4. Added change notes specific to the update
5. Pressed Share
6. Steam auto opens with a new dupe item, hasn't updated the old one, confirming my suspicions originally with having unique identifiers for each asset, even if it is identical in nearly every way.

Oh well, can't win them all...

Is this even possible though? Or is this a fancy Steam workshop trick to avoid people "updating" assets in which the "update" should really be a new item because it might be so different from the original?

 

[TPB]

You didn't do it right

You don't have to press Share again at all, go ahead and delete the new one you just uploaded. Repeat the above steps carefully, but delete the crp file in content folder, then paste in the new one with icon. then press update, and wait for commiting changes message and steam will open the window.

Now in order to really test it worked. Go into your local assets folder, and move out of there your local copy of the asset. Restarting the game doesnt hurt either, as sometimes there are funny dupes all over the place when updating.

Make sure you are sub'd to your item you updated, and open the game to test.

My updates work each time.

By the way, you can update an entirely new file to an existing item on workshop, even if it has a different id, category, or anything else.

Just delete the crp file in content folder when you update, and stick any other crp file and it will be updated to steam.

PS. I've updated the guide with the simplified method, I'm struggling to make it clear and concise, if anyone has time to proof read for me? Any tips are welcome. ty

 

[Jenkins87]

You didn't do it right

You don't have to press Share again at all, go ahead and delete the new one you just uploaded. Repeat the above steps carefully, but delete the crp file in content folder, then paste in the new one with icon. then press update, and wait for commiting changes message and steam will open the window.

Now in order to really test it worked. Go into your local assets folder, and move out of there your local copy of the asset. Make sure you are sub'd to your item you updated, and open the game to test.

My updates work each time.

By the way, you can update an entirely new file to an existing item on workshop, even if it has a different id, category, or anything else.

Just delete the crp file in content folder when you update, and stick any other crp file and it will be updated to steam.

AHA! Excellent thank you, I was going to try a similar process of removing the old file instead of overwriting it next, I deleted the dupe the moment it published

This is a serious game changer for me lol, it's a shame previous assets can't be edited without being recreated, some, like the simple roundabout I used as a test, are super simple to recreate, but others, I spent a couple of hours on just 1 asset and the chances of a 1:1 recreation are pretty slim without painstakingly measuring each of them to use as a guide to recreate.

Embarrassing to admit, but I have an exercise book next to my computer with all my assets sketched out on it, their costs, sizes etc, lol.

So yeah, I guess all we're missing are those backgrounds...

 

[Jenkins87]

Big thanks to @T.P.B. and to @FX2K for making this possible, Starting to look like an actual menu now, and not a repeating carousel of white blocks lol;