Read Before Asking Questions!

[Sundance300]

These are the commonly asked questions I have found in APE Questions. I will add more as I come across them. Any questions similiar to the ones here will be deleted to save space. Thank you.
Note:Also, this topic was left unlocked so you could inform Devona or me of any broken links or misinformation. I'm sure you appreciate this, but under Jwa's demand you may not express that here.
Note: I split this into sections for easier organizing. So each time you see my avatar that's a new category.

What is APE?
APE is the animal project editor and it will allow you to create your own animals and objects for Zoo Tycoon. It is a download and can be downloaded from a few different sites there is about three different versions of it!!!

Where can I download APE?
http://www.hemsida.net/ztdesign
http://zoo.ogresnet.com under Utilities
http://www.ztunlimited.com/?p=dl_files

What's the difference between 1.11 and 1.22?

"...the creator of this unofficial version said that it would fix rotation and invisiblity problems. This, sadly, was not the case. All the person did was hack the files replacing the text and other graphical parts of the program." -Mark Bell

I tried running the APE but it says "A required .DLL file, GDIPLUS.DLL, was not found". Where can I find this file?
Mark Bells' site

What is the largest picture size APE will support?
511 width X 319 height
-Quebec

[Sundance300]

Saving one animation pic at a time is a pain, is there a faster way?
Here's a tip. Say you're in animation Walk, direction SE, just click on the first animation pic and drag down to the last one. Then click save. Just name the it something (I usually do it *animal*walkSE) and it'll number for you so they stay in order. (lionwalkSe00001, lionwalkSE00002, etc...)

How do I make my own animals on A.P.E.?
Animalmaker's Guide to making animals

How Do You Recolor Animals?
Devona's Recoloring Guide

On APE can you change the colors on animals?
You can't re-colour with the APE program, you need a secondary program, such as Paint or Adobe Photoshop. Just about any paint program will do.

How do you get the animal plaques?
Try pressing the print screen button (PrintScrn) when you're on APE with the plaque showing, then go to your paint program(whatever it may be) go up to edit, and them paste. Cut out everything but the plaque. Or take in-game screenshots of the animal's plaque and then edit them.

Whenever I make an animal it gets taken away? Why?
Open the animal in APE and under properties, check the sickness threshold ...make sure it is up around 20
-Mak1027

I am trying to import the megathrium.ztd file into APE by pressing 'Import a project'. When I try and import it, it does not come up on the screen. I have tried lots of different files and it does the same to each one.
With official downloads you have to get it the same way as you extract the dinos.

Can you get dino digs dinosaurs into APE?
Yes and no. You have to extract the dinos. Here's a tutorial: ZKL's Version of extraction
There's now two tutorials at zoogirl's site!
http://www.zoogirlandfriends.com/starterpage.html

How do I get APE to use MM and DD animals natively?
Spin has made a guide (pics included) on how to do this. It's been approved by Mak1027, Devona, and Sundance300.
http://zt.arachnafobic.org/site_eape.php

Can people make animals that swim in tanks?
You can use one of 2 methods to get these animals into APE
Enhanced APE:
http://zt.arachnafobic.org/site_eape.php
or file swapping:
ZKL
If you use the enhanced APE, the animal will swim in a tank ...if you use the file swapping method you have to do some .uca file editing and then it too will swim in a tank, assuming the animal has swim animations...you could conceivably make any animal an underwater animal, but if it doesn't have swim animations it would look pretty silly walking and running underwater.
-Mak1027


Well I put a roar from a dinosaur in the Siberian Tiger sounds in APE. When I adopted one, and put it in my zoo, it didn't play the roar I put it.
You also have to add the sound in the .uca or .ai file
Look for the part of the .uca/.ai file that looks like this:
[Sounds]
soft_growl = animals/leopard/chlgrowl.wav
soft_growl = 1100
purr = animals/leopard/stpurr.wav
purr = 1600
roar2 = animals/leopard/cllgrowl.wav
roar2 = 1700
hiss = animals/leopard/clhiss.wav
hiss = 1700
baby1 = animals/leopard/lelgrowl.wav
baby1 = 1400
baby2 = animals/leopard/blcbcall.wav
baby2 = 1700
baby3 = animals/leopard/lecbcall.wav
baby3 = 1600
baby4 = animals/leopard/jacbcall.wav
baby4 = 1400

the sounds listed will be different, because this isn't from the tiger, but you will need to change the tigers roar ...so change the roar that is listed to:
roar = the name of the dino.wav you added
roar = 1700 (this is the volume...so test in the game and adjust accordingly)
-Mak1027

I have done everything according to the guide (krimmsuns) but the last step is bugging me, change the animals.zip to whatever.ztd, It just won't work.
To change a file from .zip to .ztd is just a matter of renaming the file, right click on the file you want to re-name and choose rename...then type over the .zip with .ztd and hit enter.
-Mak1027
And if that doesn't work.......
If it won't let you re-name the extension, you'll need to open up *my computer or My documents...* go to TOOLS (at the top) and then FOLDER OPTIONS(at the bottom) there, go the the VIEW tab.. there, under the heading of Hidden files and folders, UNCHECK *hide extentions for known file types* and click apply and ok. this should then let you re-name the exentions from .zip to .ztd.
-searain79

I made a dinosaur using the ""get dinos and marine animals into APE natively" guide. Scientists go in, check on the egg, ect. The egg plays the hatching animation, then goes back into the egg state. The egg keeps playing the hatching sequence, over and over, but never actually hatches. How do I fix this?

Unpack the ztd, open the uca

find : 

Code: Select all

[yBehaviorSetbHatch]

f = fPlayWithSound(egg_hatch,hatch)

f = fPlay(idle)

f = fPlay()

change :

Code: Select all

f = fPlay()

to :

Code: Select all

f = fHatch()

did the trick atleast for the Herrerasaurus I just tested it with.


I noticed more of these, and suggest one takes a good look at all the "BehaviorSet" values for these new functions like fHatch().

For easy lookup in the original AIs I have the rar containing all of them up in filecenter here

For more info go to this section of Spin's website:

http://zt.arachnafobic.org/site_eape.php?show=A1

He'll be adding every single object there, one at a time. So it might be one for the bookmarks

Currently it just lists the African Buffalo edits...

[Sundance300]

Is there a guide to making new buildings?
Mark Bells' site

Is there a place I can download ZT buildings like the Japanese Garden or the Aviary?
Mark Bells' site

Can you get trees into APE?
Right now APE won't retrieve trees because they are considered foliage. You have to have them extracted.

The sounds of certain buildings drive me nuts! Is there a way to mute it without turning on mute?
Just open up that file with winzip and delete the wav file (if there is any sound file that is) ..if that doesnt work then just extract the .ai file to ur desktop (with all the folder names) and open up that file with notepad ..then check for this line:

[UseSound]
alwayson = 0
loops = 0

if they have a 1 instead of a 0 then change it to 0 ..then save the file and put it back in that ztd file u extracted it from (with all the folder names) ..that should do it
-dj_puffs

I finally managed to make a statue visible... but when i place it somewhere, it looks like it's floating about one tile off of the ground?? Why does it do this and how do i fix it?
This is the rotational problem. You could ask Mak1027 or go to Mark Bell's site: Mark Bells' site


How do I make trees compatible in exhibits? I made some savanna trees and I want to be able to put them in savannah exhibits.
in the .ucs file look for the line that says
cHabitat = 9411
9411 is a neutral habitat which means it can go in any exhibit regardless of habitat
9400 will makely them strictly a savannah tree
-mak1027

How To Add Sound To An Object

well just looking real quick it looks like the .wav goes in the id#subfolder with the animations,add this to the .ucs
[AmbientSound]
name = objects/firetruck s/firetruck.wav (obviously change for your sound)
attenuation = 400
change it to an .ai
and add a bldg.cfg file for the .ai

-Mak0127

How to make objects walkthrough
Add

Code: Select all

  
walkthrough = 1 

to the ucs file.

It´s just like programming/html. 1 is yes/activated and 0 is no/deactivated. For example "place in water = 0" and you can´t put the object in water.

-Lehner

[Sundance300]

How do you make a finished animal available to other people?

You can submit any item/animal to zkl. There is more information in a topic in the Frequently Asked Questions section. Please go here: viewtopic.php?t=454.

[Sundance300]

Here's the ID Numbers for editing your animals.

How do you change the shelter of an animal in ape?
You have to add a higher number in the uca file for the kind of shelter you want the animal to like.
Here are the shelter numbers
Shelters:
8100 Rock Cave
8102 Snowy Rock Cave
8103 Panda Cave
8104 Lean-to Shelter Small
8105 Lean-to Shelter Regular
8106 Lean-to Shelter Large
8107 Concrete Shelter Small
8108 Concrete Shelter Regular
8109 Concrete Shelter Large
8110 Wood Shelter Small
8111 Wood Shelter
8112 Wood Shelter Large
8113 Stable Small
8114 Stable Regular
8115 Stable Large
8116 Elephant Shelter Small
8117 Elephant Shelter Large
8118 Giraffe Shelter Small
8119 Giraffe Shelter Large
8120 Burrow Shelter Small
8121 Burrow Shelter Regular
8122 Burrow Shelter Large
8128 Dino Cave
8129 Dino Nest
8130 Ice Age Cave
8135 Underwater Cave
8136 Sunken Ship
so if you want it to like the rock cave you would add this in the uca file with the other numbers.
v = 8100
v = 20
-Devona

How do you change the information pictures for an animal-i.e. savannah v. rainforest, bushes v. trees, Africa v. Asia?
You need to edit the UCA file (it can't be done in APE) Unzip the ztd file, being sure you extract it keeping the same directory structures. Then
Open the uca file (in the animals directory, it will be the id of your animal, a whole lot of letters and numbers.uca) up in WordPad or similar and search for cLocation, it will be
cLocation=[some number]
Replace the number with where you want it to live:
Locations:
9600 Africa
9601 India
9602 Siberia
9603 Southeast Asia
9604 Himalayas
9605 China
9606 South America
9607 North America
9608 Arctic
9609 Antarctica
9610 Eurasia
9611 Australia
9612 Asia
9613 Europe
9614 North Africa
9615 Pacific Ocean
9616 Eastern United States
9617 Western United States
9618 Neutral Location
9625 Many Locations
9626 Arctic (MM)
9627 Many Locations
9629 Many Locations
9630 North Pacific Ocean
9631 Many Locations
9632 Atlantic Ocean
9633 Many Oceans
9620 Triassic
9621 Jurassic
9622 Cretaceous
9623 Ice Age

To change the preferred habitat shown, search for cHabitat
ie
cHabitat = [some number]
and edit the number to the right one:
9400 Savannah
9401 Grassland
9402 Deciduous Forest
9403 Coniferous Forest
9404 Boreal Forest
9405 Tropical Rainforest
9406 Scrub
9407 Highlands
9408 Tundra
9409 Desert
9410 Non-habitat
9411 Neutral Habitat
9412 Null Habitat
9413 Aquatic
9414 Bad-habitat

Now to change to show the favourite foliage type.
search for cPrefIcon
it will be something like
cPrefIcon = objects/savgrass/SE/SE

Decide the name of the foliage it likes best. Now, open up scenery.ztd from main zoo tycoon directory in winzip or similar (you shouldn't have to unzip it.) Sort the files by alphabet and look for something which looks like a shortened version of the desired plant's name, then replace the text in the uca file to that name (eg. savgrass to khejri)

Also note when editing terrain in APE:
Here's all the terrains from BETA
Waterfall
Beorial Forest
Swamp
German
USA
Japan
Animal Poo Terrain

Ingame terrains
Deciduous
Coniferous
Savana
Salt water
Fresh water
Asphalt
Concrete
Trampled Terrain
Grass
Sand
Grey Stone
Brown stone
Dirt
-LF

Make that be its favourite foliage type:
find cpreficonID and change its number to the right foliage
eg.
cPrefIcon = 7076
for the khejri tree
7000 Acacia Caffra Tree
7001 Thorn Acacia Tree
7004 Wild Olive Tree
7005 Ulmo Tree
7006 Elm Tree
7007 Pacific Dogwood Tree
7008 Cherry Tree
7009 Lodgepole Pine Tree
7010 Palm Tree
7011 Maple Tree
7012 Fir Tree
7013 Pine Tree
7014 Mangrove Tree
7015 Elephant Ear Tree
7016 Bamboo Stand
7017 Eucalyptus Tree
7018 Foxtail Tree
7019 Hard Quandong Tree
7020 Thornless Mesquite Tree
7021 Yew Tree
7022 Birch Tree
7023 Western Spruce Tree
7024 Western Cedar Tree
7025 Western Larch Tree
7026 Trembling Aspen Tree
7028 Globe Willow Tree
7029 Joshua Tree
7030 Red Gum Tree 7098
7033 Quiver Tree
7035 Japanese Maple Tree
7039 Prickly Pear Cactus
7040 Saguaro Cactus
7042 Llala Palm Tree
7048 Thorn Bush
7049 Rainforest Bush
7050 Deciduous Bush
7051 Rainforest Fern
7056 Yellow Fever Acacia Tree
7057 Baobab Tree
7058 Umbrella Thorn Acacia Tree
7059 Orchid Tree
7060 Tall Savannah Grass
7061 Water Reed
7062 Water Lily
7063 Grass Tree
7064 Paper Birch Tree
7065 Kapok Tree
7066 Weeping Willow Tree
7067 White Oak Tree
7068 Western Red Cedar Tree
7069 Chinese Fir Tree
7070 Himalayan Birch Tree
7071 Western Juniper Tree
7072 Himalayan Pine Tree
7077 Christmas Tree
7078 Pumpkin
7079 Snowman
7073 Sage Bush
7074 Broadleaf Bush
7075 Pine Bush
7076 Khejri Tree
7080 Club Moss Shrub
7081 Walchian Conifer Tree
7082 Thouarsus Cycad
7083 Bald Cypress Tree
7084 Dawn Redwood Tree
7085 Fern Bush
7086 Gingkos Tree
7087 Glossopteris Tree
7088 Horsetail
7089 Lepidodendron Tree
7090 Leptocycas Tree
7091 Magnolia Tree
7092 Monkey Puzzle Tree
7093 Norfolk Island Pine Tree
7094 Sigillaria Tree
7095 Williamsonia Tree
7096 Arctic Birch Tree
7097 Arctic Grass
7098 Arctic Bush
7400 Sea Anemone
7401 Barnacles
7402 Beach Grass
7403 Brittle Sea Star
7404 Clam Bed
7405 Orange Cup Coral
7406 Divercate Tree Coral
7407 Feather Duster Worm
7408 Fire Coral
7409 Kelp
7410 Sea Lettuce
7411 Red Gorgonian
7412 Sargassum
7413 Sand Dollar
7414 Sea Cucumber
7415 Sea Star
7416 Seaweed
7417 Sea Grass
7418 Sea Sponge
7419 Stove Pipe Sponge
7420 Tubeworm
7421 Purple Sea Urchin


when you finish zip up the ztd file again, hopefully you can just right click the 'animals' folder and choose 'add to archive' or' add to zip' or whatever, be sure it's save with the extension ztd
-icer


Numbers for changing food.
To change the food that your animal is fed by the zookeeper, open the .uca file in notepad and look for the line that says
cKeeperFoodType = "x"
where x is a number

If x =
0 - hay ( ZT )
1 - meat ( ZT )
2 - fruit ( ZT )
3 - Bamboo shoots ( ZT )
4 - Grass and branches ( ZT )
5 - fish ( ZT )
6 - Insectivore chow (DD)
7 - Large Meat Chow (DD)
8 - Large grass and leaves chow (DD)
9 - Krill (MM)
10 - Fish (MM)
11 - Chum (MM)
12 - Marine Grass (MM)
13- Urchin (MM)

The zookeeper will feed all these food types, but if you want your animal to be a ZT animal, only use food types marked ZT. You can for instance have a giraffe that eats urchins, but then it would have to be a MM animal, because the food will only show up in MM.
-Mak1027

Thank Spin for all the MM/DD foliage. If you want more ids (buildings, genus, people, rocks, paths, etc) got to his site:
http://zt.arachnafobic.org/site_ztd.php

For more information:
http://megazootycoon.tripod.com Click Help.
http://zoo.ogresnet.com under various Articles.

[Sundance300]

This post is strictly for invisibility since there is quite a lot of information and questions on it.

Where do I get the invisibility fix?
Mark Bells' site


Mak1027's Explaination of how to get the invisibility fix to work.
I usually copy the animal file I am fixing to my desktop, because it's easier for me to keep track of.

for example I will use elephant.ztd

1) you need to unzip the elephant.ztd file...do this by right clicking on the file and choose winzip, then extract to folder...I usually also extract to the desktop.you should then have a folder called elephant on your desktop.

2)Using Mark's program, click on invisibilty_fix_v1-0.exe file...a little window will pop up, click continue.
3)A window called form 2 will open, and you need to find the elephant folder on the left side of screen...
for me I had to click c:, then documents and settings,then desktop....if you have multiple users on your comp, click on your screen name, then desktop...all the folders on your desktop should then be listed. Click on the elephant folder
3) After you click on elephant folder an animals folder should show up under elephant folder in the list, click on the animal folder. On the right side of the window a .uca file should appear..the name of it id the id#of your animal.uca....double click on the .uca file and a new window will pop up telling you the invisibility is fixed.

4)Next you need to re-create the .ztd file.....right click on blank area on your desktop and choose new...winzip file, this will create an empty winzip file on your desktop. Open the elephant folder and inside should be a sub-folder called animals, drag the animals folder to the new winzip folder...the winzip window should pop-up, just choose agree and then add in the next window.
5) rename the new winzip file by right-clicking on it, choose rename, and name it elephant.ztd (or whatever your animal is) You may get a warning about changing the extension causing file to become unstable...just choose yes. Add the new .ztd to your updates folder and you should now be able to see the animal.

If it is an object, when you unzip it, there will be 2 folders in the main folder for the object.....1 called objects, 1 called scenery...inside the scenery folder is a subfolder called "other", and inside this folder is the .ucs file which you need to select when using the invisibility fix.

Yet another version of how to get the invisibility fix to work....
1.Take them animal ZTD you made (we'll go ahead and call it elephant.ztd), extract it to your desktop.
Then double click on the invisibility fix.
2.Form2 will pop up. You have a list of folders on your right, double click on Windows, the scroll down until you find Desktop. Double click on it. A folder called animals will be below Desktop. Doubleclick
3.You'll see a number with a uca ending. Double click on it. Up will pop another window congratulating you on fixing the invis.

Now you have to zip the folder back up. You extracted the elephant.ztd onto your desktop, so you'll need to go back to the desktop.
1. Go to the desktop and find the "animal" folder. Right click it. Go down the files until you get to winzip..., it should expand. click on add to zip file.
2. A window called Add will pop up. Under the title called Add to Archive click the Open button. Browse to find your Elephant.ztd folder, click on it and then click on open.
3. Back at the Add popup window click on the Add button to the right.
It will update the files in the elephant.ztd and it should work.


Manual Object Invisibility Fix
Here's how Devona taught me to do it....You have winzip or a program similiar, right?

1. To make items visible I usually open it in winzip and then click the
idle.ani file.
2. Then extract it to a folder.
3. It will extract it to your selected folder. Find the idle. ani file in you selected folder.
4.
Open the idle file with Notepad and the add this to it
dir2 = idle
animation = NE
animation = SE
animation = SW
animation = NW
x0 = -22
y0 = -16
x1 = 22
y1 = 16

4. Then i save it and go backwards to the "objects"
5. Right click on it and then click add to zip file of the object that you are fixing.
This works for objects......I'm not sure if it works for animals.
-Sundance300

[Sundance300]

Here's a full breakdown for MM animals, I'll to place as much comments in between as I can.

Used Orca.AI for references

Code: Select all

[Characteristics/Integers]
; shadows for this unit

cUsesRealShadows = 1

cHasShadowImages = 1

cHasUnderwaterSection = 1

The cExpansion = 2 really shouldn't be needed as the sealion does not have this line for example, but swims happilly in a tank.
The other 3 make sure the shadows are cast to the tanks bottom, and not straight under the animal (methinks)

Code: Select all

[Member]

animals

aqua

This will make the animal show up if you filter your selection to MM animals only in the game.

Code: Select all

[m/Characteristics/Integers] (or f/ or y/)
; Underwater characteristics

cUnderwater = 1

cOnlyUnderwater = 1

cDepth = 3

cDepthMin = 8

cDepthMax = 29

cDepthChange = -8


;Keeper is marine specialist

cKeeper = 9552


; Show characteristics

cSkipTrickHappiness = 50

cSkipTrickChance = 10


; Breathing characteristics

cBreathThreshold  = 50

cBreathIncrement  = 10


; Avoid tank walls

cAvoidEdges = 1


; Water variables

cSalinityChange = -10

cSalinityHealthChange = -20

cDirtyHabitatRating = 15

cDirtyIncrement = 10

cDirtyThreshold = 100

cPooWaterImpact = 5 

cMurkyWaterChange = -5

cMurkyWaterHealthChange = -5

cMurkyWaterThreshold = 60

cVeryMurkyWaterChange = -10

cVeryMurkyWaterHealthChange = -10

cVeryMurkyWaterThreshold = 20

cExtremelyMurkyWaterChange = -15

cExtremelyMurkyWaterHealthChange = -15

cExtremelyMurkyWaterThreshold= 1

Above are all the integer variables that influence MM animals, cSwim is not for tanks, use the underwater ones for this.
cDepth specifies the number of units this animal should remain above the bottom floor.
Im not 100% sure about this next one, cDepthChange is how much happiness gets influenced should the depth change while it is in the tank.

Code: Select all

[m/tricks]

trick=empty

trick=finswim

trick=foodtrick



[y/tricks]

trick=empty



[m/tricks/finswim]

id=11200

type=0

name=TrickFinswim

complexity=1

satisfaction=2

satisfactiondelta=1

minimumdepth=2

defaultavailable=1

keeperpretrick=bTrickStart

normalHelpID=11300

grayedHelpID=11400

normalIcon = animals/orca/icorca/icorca

grayedIcon = animals/orca/icorca/icorca


; return to the keeper for a treat [b](ALWAYS THERE)[/b]

[m/tricks/foodtrick]

id=11299

type=3

name=foodtrick

complexity=0

satisfaction=0

satisfactiondelta=0

minimumdepth=3

defaultavailable=1

keeperposttrick=bTrickFeed

visible=0

Here you see a part of the tricks section at the bottom of the AI file. It specifies tricks per gender, each always has empty as first trick, and foodtrick must be used if any tricks other then emtpy are also defined!

Hope this was helpfull.

-Spin