"Trompe-l'oeil" Painting-TV *UPD 06oct2008*

It's a painting!... No, it's a TV!... No, look, it's a painting!
It's the fabulous "Trompe-l'oeil" Painting-TV!!!

Some homes are just too luxury, or too classic, to allow placing a prosaic modern TV in your living room. But, on the other hand, just looking at paintings doesn't give much fun...
The perfect solution is the "Trompe-l'oeil" Painting-TV: it looks like a perfect copy of a painting (classic or modern, you choose), until you use your remote control to reveal the state-of-the-art plasma TV hidden under the canvas. Your guests will have a wonderful surprise when this painting suddenly turns into a hi-tech TV! Countless "Ohhh", "Aaah" and "Wow" guaranteed!


INTRODUCTION
This is quite an old project, dating back to May 2007, that I never finished... until today The main problem (that I soved only recently) was forcing the television to display a custom texture for the "screen off" state, instead of the default dark grey used for all the other TVs.
For those who don't know and are curious about it, "Trompe-l'œil" is French, and literally means "trick the eye"; in architecture, the "trompe-l'oeil" technique is quite a different thing than this object but nevertheless this object is supposed to trick the eye!


IN-GAME USAGE
Use this object as a standard wall-mounted TV; you can watch normal channels, movies (FT only) and weather forecasts (SSN only), and of course you can also work out in front of it. The Painting-TV uses the very same Maxis code, so there isn't anything special from this point of view. But when you turn it off, it reverts back to its "painting" appearance!
While buying it from the catalog (in the "TV & Computers" section), you can choose between two styles: a slim and linear modern frame with a city night view; or a baroque golden frame with the famous "Etoile" portrait by Degas.
NOTE: though the meshes of the two alternative frames are different, there is only one TV in the catalog; the two styles are selected by choosing a recolour.


GAME COMPATIBILITY
This TV is compatible with any game, from the base game to Apartment Life. You will find in the pie menu all the functions related to the EPs that you have installed, including watching movies (if you have Freetime) and weather forecasts (if you have Seasons).


RECOLOURS
As usual, my objects are a little particular .
The object contains two different meshes for the frame, but only one is displayed at a time. This is achieved by means of special textures that "hide" the unwanted mesh using a transparent Alpha channel.
In order to create a recolour for the frame, load the TV in Object Workshop and select the frame (classic or modern) that you want to create a recolour for. Depending on your choice, the resulting recolour package will contain a texture where the left part or the right part is transparent: just ignore the transparent part and recolour the visible part.



CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - COPYRIGHT
All the meshes have been derived from original Maxis meshes. The "City Landscape" painting is by Maxis, the "Etoile" painting is by Degas.
the internal code, and in particular the ability to use a custom "screen off" texture, is by me. DO NOT CLONE - DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE.


Poly Count: 868 faces, 789 vertices.