Date Posted: 18th Jun 2009 at 12:54 AM

Going to try and capture my ideas for a specific set of mods that I will need meshing expertise to complete. If I can write it down, hopefully I can explain it to someone else who can help me with the meshing.

The basic idea is to allow Sims to do laundry. The peices required follow with descriptions of how they link together.

Dirty pile of clothes
Based off rubbish pile - has similar attributes, in that it can be picked up, it will start to smell (green stink) and if you have more rubbish the pile gets bigger. I think no flies for the dirty clothes though.
Created when a very sloppy child or adult changes clothes, or when a moderately sloppy teenager changes clothes. The pile of clothes is placed somewhere nearby. Imagine teenager's room covered in piles of dirty clothes in every empty space!
Cost N/A
Catalog Section N/A
Interactions

• Put in Laundry Basket

Laundry Basket

Base off outdoor trash can with lid - has similar shape, and want same animation to lift up lid and put something (dirty clothes) in it. Of course want wicker look, not trash can look.
Created when user buys from catalog.
Cost Similar to various towel rails => $200
Catalog Section Similar to various towel rails => Decorative-Misc
Interactions

• Do some washing - this will find the nearest object advertising a washing function (could be a sink or a washing machine)
• Debug - Create pile of dirty clothes (handy for testing)

Sinks
Update to all sinks to advertise washing function which helpfully exists although Maxis never did anything with it in the end. If clothes updates were possible then Sinks would wash about 70% clean.

Washing Machine
Many washing machines exist, however they are static objects for decoration only (mostly). Want to make animations for washing machine door to open and Sim to put clothes inside and provide tutorial to explain to other washing machine modders how to update their static washing into a working one should they have my mod. If clothes updates were possible then Washing Machines would wash about 80% clean. When clothese are washed they then need to be dried.
Interactions

• Do some washing - this will go to the laundry basket and get dirty clothes
• Dry Clothes.../on washing line (only available when washing complete)
• Dry Clothes.../on clothes horse (only available when washing complete)
• Dry Clothes.../in tumbler drier (only available when washing complete)

Washing line

Base off maybe the playground roubabout "Centrifun" as it spins? - want a rotary dryer that spins when it is windy (if you have the Seasons EP) - what objects spin like that? It would also have animations for hanging up clothes. If clothes updates were possible then the washing line would add an extra 20% clean.
Created when user buys from catalog.
Cost Similar to various towel rails => $200
Catalog Section Similar to various towel rails => Decorative-Misc ??
Interactions

• Take in wet clothes (available when not dry - i.e. if raining)
• Debug - How wet are clothes?
• Take in dry clothes (available when clothes are dry)
• Take in dry clothes and iron (available when clothes are dry and an ironing board is owned)

Clothes Horses

Base off not sure yet - want something with several stages of material to show empty, partially fillled and full - with animations to hang up clothes. Clothes horses with wet clothes on them lower the environment score of the room a little. Clothes horses with dry clothes on them lower the environment score of the room a lot (so put them away then!!). If clothes updates were possible then the clothes horse would add an extra 10% clean.
Created when user selects "Dry Clothes.../on clothes horse" from washing machine pie-menu, and placed near where they were standing when they selected it.
Cost N/A
Catalog Section N/A
Interactions

• Put Away clothes (only if clothes are dry)
• Iron clothes (available when clothes are dry and an ironing board is owned)
• Debug - How wet are clothes?

Tumble Dryer
Machine that is almost identical to washing machines but instead of washing, does the drying . Same animations. If clothes updates were possible then the clothes horse would add an extra 10% clean.

Ironing Board and Iron
Base off not sure yet - If clothes updates were possible then ironing would add an extra 10% clean. So with sink, clothes line and ironing board you can still get 100% clean without new fangled machinery!
Created when user buys from catalog.
Cost
Catalog Section Appliances-Small ??
Interactions

• Continue Ironing (Any unfinished ironing can be restarted)
• Put Away clothes (whether ironed or not)

Sims Clothes
Would prefer to be able to decrease the choices of outfits in the Sims wardrobe until they had nothing left to wear, but it doesn't seem possible (yet) to mod the wardrobe code. So the only thing that remains is to somehow keep track of the overall clealiness of Sims clothes as a total and decrease their hygiene when the get dressed to imply they have just put on dirty clothes. When it gets lower than a certain point, start spitting out messages to say that they should do some washing.

Date Posted: 18th May 2009 at 12:34 AM

In order for BHAV code to find objects that are not currently on your lot, we found an instruction that allows the selection of objects with a particular value set (see this tutorial if you are interested in BHAV programming). This means that in order to have any specific car mesh found and used in your Decorative Parking Space, that car must be marked with a particular selector value. For custom cars, there is a very small step that anyone familiar with SimPE^wiki could do for themselves, or, hopefully, car mesh owners will gradually update their cars to include.

How to mark a car with the correct selectable value

1. Open the car's .package file in SimPE.
   
2. In the Resource Tree pane of SimPE, select the 'Object Data (OBJD)' section.
   
3. In the Resource List pane of SimPE, this will now show one item with a name something like 'Car Ownable - car name'. Select this item
   
4. Ensure you are looking at the Plugin View tab.
   
5. Select the 'RAW Data' tab.
   
6. Scroll right to the bottom, and look for the field labelled '0x004B: Selector Category'
   
7. Edit the 'Selector Category' field to have the value 3, and additionally the 'Selector Sub-Category field just below it to have the value 3 as well.
   
8. Commit your change.
   
9. File->Save
   
10. File->Save Copy As... into your downloads directory.

To test it has been marked correctly

1. Start up your Sims 2 game
2. Place the decorative parking space in a lot
3. Press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<c> to bring up the cheats window
4. Type boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true
5. Hold down the <Shift> key and right-click on the parking space.
6. Select the menu item labelled "*Show All Cars". This will cycle through all the cars that the code can find. If you have correctly made the update to the Selector Category, you will see your car in this cycle. This means that your car is available for the decorative car parking space to randomly select for use.
7. If you have a Pets or newer Expansion pack there is an easier way - select the menu item labelled "Create Car..." which will have a sub-menu of all the cars and pick your one. If it isn't in the list to choose, it isn't correctly categorised.

Annoyingly Maxis have categorised two baby changing tables as Selector = 3, sub-selector = 1, which is why we are using a Sub-Selector here even though we are using the number Maxis assigned as the category for Vehicles!

Date Posted: 11th Jan 2009 at 11:26 PM

As much as a reminder to myself I capture this information here. My thanks to Rosawyn for this method and to Rosawyn and inuyasha_babe for the general information that this could be done at all!

To make a non-playable Sim playable without any custom content you can use the following cheat. Press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window and in it type the following:-
boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true
to turn on the use of the debug pie-menu.

Now you can press <Shift> when you click on a non-playable Sim and you will see this pie-menu (screen-shot from AL) where you can select MAKE SELECTABLE. This adds the non-playable Sim to the list of playable characters on the left of your screen and you can then do whatever you want with them. If you want to make them non-playable again, press <Shift> when selecting the Sim and this time select the Make Unselectable menu option.



Also there are a couple of objects that allow a similar function which I didn't bother to try since I don't mind using the the testing Cheats above.

1. InSIMenator (link provided by inuyasha_babe)
2. Sim Blender (link provided by inuyasha_babe)
3. The teleporter cat from Simlogical (link provided by Rosawyn)

Date Posted: 29th Dec 2008 at 1:33 AM

When the idea of adding Pet Jobs to my Job Seeking Noticeboard was initially raised there was some discussion about having a separate board with only Pet Jobs on it - so that it could be placed in a Pet shop and the human jobs board could be separate in a Job Centre.

My solution to this request is to make the single Job Seeking Noticeboard able to be configured to be either Pets only, Sims only or both. I have done this since most of the code in the object is the same for both and it would take up much more download folder space to have two objects. This is a little step-by-step to show you how to configure it for Pets.

1. When building your Pet Store, place the Job Seeking Noticeboard somewhere appropriate, perhaps also choosing the Pet related recolor. You will see a message pop-up saying that Pet Jobs are On and Sim Jobs are on.
2. If you now pick up the board and place it again (in the same spot is fine) you will see another message pop-up.
3. Doing this a third and subsequent times will continue to cycle through the configuration options thus:
   1. Pet Jobs: On, Sim Jobs: On
   2. Pet Jobs: On, Sim Jobs: Off
   3. Pet Jobs: Off, Sim Jobs: On
   
   
   
   
4. Now play your Pet owning Sim family.
5. Go to your Pet Store taking the Pets which you want to get jobs with you.
6. Choose the job for the Pet from the noticeboard.

The Pet Careers shown in the pie-menus above can be found as follows:-

• Showbiz - Maxis Pets EP
• Service - Maxis Pets EP
• Security - Maxis Pets EP
• Racing - here
• Magic - here
• Espionage - here
• Circus - here
• Time travel - here

Alternative method - only useful in live mode - so less useful overall

1. When building your Pet Store, place the Job Seeking Noticeboard somewhere appropriate, perhaps also choosing the Pet related recolor.
2. Now we are going to make a change to the board and for that we need to be in live mode on the Pet Store Lot, but...
   1. If the board is on a residential lot, for example a home business, it's easy since you have Sims there anyway.
   2. If the board is on an owned business (OFB EP) then send the owner to the business to make the change.
   3. If the board is on a community lot that isn't owned then any changes you make to the board with a visiting Sim are not saved so the only way to configure it is to use the placement method mentioned at the beginning of this journal entry.
3. Press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window and in it type the following:-
   boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true
   which will allow use of the debug pie-menu.
4. Hold <Shift> while clicking on the noticeboard to bring up the pie-menu and you will discover a different pie-menu. This is the debug menu. Select Turn off Sim Jobs. (If you do this step again, you will see "Turn On Sim Jobs". The options toggle in other words).
5. Press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window and in it type the following:-
   boolProp testingCheatsEnabled false
   to turn off the use of the debug pie-menu again.

Date Posted: 22nd Dec 2008 at 12:17 AM

My desk locator object is used to identify a desk or table as "owned" by a particular Sim so that when they come home with homework they will place it on their nominated desk (instead of leaving it on the floor, outside in the snow, or in some other awkward place so that you can't find it again later).

In order to use it with a 1x1 table you need to use OMSP objects. This is because there is only one place to put something on a 1x1 table and if you put the desk locator on it, there will be no room for the homework!

Here is a little step-by-step list to get you to the point of using the desk locator with a 1x1 table since it involves using various cheats that not everyone may be familiar with.

1. Download the OMSP package from here. Specifically you will want to put these packages from the .rar file into your Downloads folder.
   • JB1-OMSP-Table.package
   • JB1-OMSP-Table-Recolour.package
2. Start up your game
3. Buy a green OMSP object and place it somewhere near your table.
4. Buy a desk locator and place it on top of the OMSP object. It will look like it sinks into it a bit - don't worry this is deliberate!
5. Press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window and in it type the following:-
   boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true
6. Select the desk locator with the hand tool and press the '<' or '>' keys to get the angle you want. Should look something like this so far.
7. Press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window again and in it type the following:-
   moveobjects on
   This allows the intersection of the OMSP object and the table.
8. Press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window again and in it type the following:-
   boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false
   This allows more granular placement of objects
9. Now move your OMSP object to the corner of your desk. Position it so that it is still fully within the tile, and try to avoid intersecting with the wall so that it looks good. Should look something like this so far.
10. Now use the design tool to change the OMSP object to the transparent recolor.
11. [optional]Suggest at this point you press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<c> to bring up the cheats window again and in it type the following:-
    boolProp snapObjectsToGrid true
    to turn off that cheat again.
12. Now get your Sim to claim the desk locator using its pie menu option, and then next time she comes home from school she will put her homework on this table (so long as there isn't a stack of homework somewhere else which she will use by preference).

Date Posted: 1st Dec 2008 at 11:48 PM

When the Nightlife Expansion Pack brought us "Thirsty" the bath mat I was very happy. "It's about time there was something like this," I thought, since my sloppy Sims were making a real mess of their bathrooms and, of course being sloppy, they generally don't take too kindly to being told to mop up their mess afterwards. If they just left the puddle where it was and another, probably Neat, Sim mops it up for them, then there's the problem that they will be annoyed at having to clean up after their Sloppy housemate. I was so dissappointed when I realised that this bath mat was an imposter - it didn't drink up the puddles at all - it was just a decorative rug!

So I made a bath mat myself that does suck up puddles - if you're interested you can download it here. In creating it I learned a lot about puddles which I decided was a little too much information to put into the object thread - so I have gathered my thoughts here instead.

A Study in Puddles
Depending on the design/layout of your bathroom, sloppy Sims can create puddles in all directions. Remember that puddles beget more puddles, and until a puddle has evaporated, if the Sim keeps showering that puddle may well spread into a second and subsequent set of puddles.

If your Sim lives in the lap of luxury you may have so much bathroom space that you can have a shower sitting right in the middle of the room. Beware however, that this means a veritable flood in all directions from a long-showering Sloppy Sim.
Placing the shower against a wall will help of course. Many objects don't allow puddle intersection, so some clever decorating can ensure that your puddles always go in one direction and then you can put a bath mat on that square to evaporate the puddles.

Sloppy Sims also create floods when they take a shower (but not a bath) in one of these combined shower and bath tubs. The floods starts as if the shower end of the bath is the only end.

Of course there is nothing to stop you carpeting your entire bathroom with various bath mats to ensure you catch the puddles wherever they spread to, but that's not particularly realistic.

Puddle Edges
When I first started looking at puddles, I considered just removing them directly, but that left you with a neighbouring puddle with a straight edge which didn't look hugely realistic, so I looked into the update adjacent puddle functions that the puddle uses when you mop it up, but discovered they really didn't like to be used when puddles were changing in themselves. Probably not threadsafe to remove a puddle and it's neighbouring links as they are just being created. So in the end I used the Force Evaporate attribute of the puddle, and let it deal with updating its own neighbours.