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CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#26 Old 9th Jan 2017 at 11:33 PM Last edited by CmarNYC : 10th Jan 2017 at 8:00 PM.
Thanks! I found the problem and have attached a fix you can try until I do a new version of s4pe. (Which I want to include several new file type wrappers and a couple of fixes mentioned in the comments here - thank you everyone.) I've asked at the EA forums for an explanation of what's going on in this new version of the MLOD since it's kind of strange and my fix is basically a kludge. Meanwhile, please test the fix and let me know.

Extract with 7-zip and replace the s4pi.MeshChunks.dll in your s4pe folder.

Edit: I've gotten help on the EA forum with details on this structure and some info on misnamed or unknown fields. Thanks, SimGuruModSquad! I've attached a new updated dll.
Attached files:
File Type: 7z  s4pi.MeshChunks.dll-1-10-17.7z (31.1 KB, 141 downloads) - View custom content
Description: Updated dll for MLOD
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Mitch100degrees
Test Subject
#27 Old 13th Jan 2017 at 12:53 PM
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Thanks for your quick work! It works great. Now to figure out how to get these into obj format because TSRW also doesn't know how to read them and just displays a blank model. Ah well, not your issue there. Thanks again.
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#28 Old 14th Jan 2017 at 8:30 PM
s4pe updated to 0.4.8 beta. Changes and link in the OP.

There are several more wrappers I intend to add or update, but I just won't have time for the next 2 weeks.
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

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NikNak513
Lab Assistant
#29 Old 15th Jan 2017 at 8:29 PM Last edited by NikNak513 : 15th Jan 2017 at 11:18 PM.
S4pe is incredibly useful! So thank you for keeping it up to date. I was wondering... will adding effects to animations be possible using the grid function be fixed? There's already support for sounds, but adding effects causes the program to crash. S4Studio has this feature but I find that program to be too unreliable at times and prefer to stick with s4pe. Thanks again for your commitment .
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#30 Old 16th Jan 2017 at 8:05 PM
I can certainly take a look at it! Could you specify which resource it is (tag or type ID), and upload or tell me how to find a couple of effects to test with?

Sorry, I know nothing about doing animations - it's probably the CLIP and/or JAZZ but I want to verify which one you're having trouble with. Also as mentioned above I won't be able to work on it for almost two weeks.
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

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NikNak513
Lab Assistant
#31 Old 16th Jan 2017 at 9:03 PM Last edited by NikNak513 : 16th Jan 2017 at 9:17 PM.
Thank you for looking into this, it's alright about the wait. I'm patient! Yeah it's the CLIP resource, it throws errors when you add ClipEventEffect via grid editing. I uploaded a text file for you to look at that has a lot of the effects from the game: http://dumptext.com/h75rExIb/raw/.

If you can't solve the issue it's alright, I'll just try and use Sims4Studio... even though it causes crashing in my game sometimes.
RomanIt
Test Subject
#32 Old 17th Jan 2017 at 10:58 AM
Is there a way to change or CASP.kaspart is only possible in hex !? in the preview is displayed as normal, why can not edit !? I can not use for this studio Sims 4 error saving "is unable Sava John yor din a folder" so I need such a possibility in this program or how can I change more types of ages for the object
NikNak513
Lab Assistant
#33 Old 17th Jan 2017 at 1:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by RomanIt
Is there a way to change or CASP.kaspart is only possible in hex !? in the preview is displayed as normal, why can not edit !? I can not use for this studio Sims 4 error saving "is unable Sava John yor din a folder" so I need such a possibility in this program or how can I change more types of ages for the object


Click the "Grid" button at the bottom of s4pe. It's next to Preview.
orangemittens
Alchemist
#34 Old 18th Jan 2017 at 4:43 AM
@NikNak513, if you believe that Sims 4 Studio is at fault for an item that causes the game to crash, please report that to us so we can look into the problem. Stating there is a problem without providing details and doing that in a place that isn't set up to report Studio bugs won't improve the situation.
vectorplexus
Test Subject
#35 Old 24th Mar 2017 at 9:26 AM
Having a bit of a problem here and I can't figure why its doing it, so I'm suspecting is a bug...

I'm trying to edit a PublicKey from a CNTX, but no matter how I try, when I insert the ResourceKey, after pressing commit, it gets a different value... For example:

0xC5F6763E-0x00000000-0x6F562066CF6D1719
turns into
0xCF6D1719-0x6F562066-0x00000000C5F6763E

It looks like is swapping the bits (or whatever you call that) in reversed order... So the only way I could put the right ResourceKey was to insert:
0xCF6D1719-0x6F562066-0x00000000C5F6763E

PS- it's v0.4.7-Beta btw
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#36 Old 25th Mar 2017 at 2:04 PM
Quote: Originally posted by vectorplexus
Having a bit of a problem here and I can't figure why its doing it, so I'm suspecting is a bug...

I'm trying to edit a PublicKey from a CNTX, but no matter how I try, when I insert the ResourceKey, after pressing commit, it gets a different value... For example:

0xC5F6763E-0x00000000-0x6F562066CF6D1719
turns into
0xCF6D1719-0x6F562066-0x00000000C5F6763E

It looks like is swapping the bits (or whatever you call that) in reversed order... So the only way I could put the right ResourceKey was to insert:
0xCF6D1719-0x6F562066-0x00000000C5F6763E

PS- it's v0.4.7-Beta btw


Thanks for reporting this - it's writing the TGI in the wrong order so the low-order part of the instance is written as the type, the high-order part is written as the group, etc. Should be an easy fix and I have to do a new version soon anyway.
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

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Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
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vectorplexus
Test Subject
#37 Old 25th Mar 2017 at 3:39 PM
oh that was fast hehe =)

also wanted to ask you a couple of questions, relating to DMaps... should I just post them here, or may I send you a PM? I'm just a bit lost here, and while I perfectly understand what the DMaps are doing I have so far been unable to get any result. Also, is it my impression, but those DMaps that are getting exported by S4PE are just one? because looking at the png it exports, it looks like its just the torso part, and I have not been able to export anything else (I'm trying to export the db43e069:00000000:8c373912264c8ee1 ymBody_Fit_Shape).

PS-I'm kinda trying to follow up on SimmyTheSim's work on http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...map-resource/p3 but seeing that I'm only a 3D artist with low knowledge on more technical shenanigans, its been kinda hard. So far I've made some custom slider by manipulating bones, but that's it, totally stuck on DMaps =(
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#38 Old 26th Mar 2017 at 4:57 AM Last edited by CmarNYC : 27th Mar 2017 at 12:40 AM.
It would be better IMO to discuss DMAPs either here or in the CAS Parts forum so that other people researching them can see. Up to you if you want to continue here or start a new thread.

The DMAPs correspond to the UV1 mapping of the meshes as you probably know. You can kind of see where the arms and torso are. The offset numbers in the DMAP tell you where the map starts and ends on the UV. It's kind of hard to explain or visualize. If you do programming in C# I could give you the code I use in CAS Tools to apply DMAPs to models to show the morphs. I can also upload an image of the standard UV1 map if you don't have it and an illustration of how the DMAP fits on it.

I suppose I should look at making a tool to convert base and modified meshes to a DMAP - since Simmy The Sim never released his as far as I know.

Edit: Here's the male UV1 map image, the male heavy DMAP image (the heavy morph is more visible than most others), and the DMAP layered on the UV1 map. Note that the DMAP as exported by s4pe is upside down - this is the way the data is in the file. To use it visually like this you need to flip it vertically. Also note that only the right side of the body is in the DMAP - the left side is mirrored in the game. And you need to scale and position the DMAP to fit the UV1 - this can be calculated using the minimum and maximum column and row - the column and row on the UV1 where the DMAP starts and ends.

Finally note: The standard size of the UV1 is 1024 x 2048 - I had to scale it down to upload it here. And the image of the DMAP layered over the UV1 is just a quickie, probably not scaled right.
Screenshots
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

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Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
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vectorplexus
Test Subject
#39 Old 26th Mar 2017 at 8:05 AM Last edited by vectorplexus : 26th Mar 2017 at 8:28 AM.
Oh! Now I see it. By offset you mean the UV coordinates? That was throwing me off... Why on earth is there on offset to the UV? Thats why I was getting confused why the UV wasnt matching exactly so I assumed that maybe it was because I had the incomplete map or something.

No, SimmyTheSim never got to release his app unfortunately, I tried to contact him, but no answer =(

I'm afraid that aside from some scripting I've done for several games, I don't have enough programming skills, so while I appreciate your offer, I would just scratch my head looking at it. Even Python is being a struggle to grasp it, as it is its own language, and aside from a noob Blender addon I did, I never really coded in Python.

I'm still going to give a few more shots with xNormal, to see if I can bake a close enough DMap, but I dont think I will be able to do that unfortunately... If I had the skills, I would try to write a blender addon to try to "export" a shape key data/deltas from each vertex on the map, so we could at least have something like x=R, y=G, z=B, but it's beyond my abilities, so I'm stuck!
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#40 Old 26th Mar 2017 at 3:47 PM Last edited by CmarNYC : 26th Mar 2017 at 3:57 PM.
There are offsets (min & max columns & rows of pixels in the UV) because not all of the body gets morphed in many/most transformations, therefore rather than have areas of the DMAP with no delta information they crop the image.

Yeah, Simmy The Sim has pretty much retired. A shame since he's done some great work, but eventually people move on or are too busy or have health issues.

I'll definitely look into a tool. It would be - I won't say not hard but at least I know how to do everything. (I think. )

In case you haven't seen it, this is a presentation on the technical features of TS4. The last section goes into deformation maps in some detail, and the whole thing is pretty interesting. http://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vaul...eator_GDC15.pdf
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
vectorplexus
Test Subject
#41 Old 26th Mar 2017 at 5:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
There are offsets (min & max columns & rows of pixels in the UV) because not all of the body gets morphed in many/most transformations, therefore rather than have areas of the DMAP with no delta information they crop the image.

Yeah, Simmy The Sim has pretty much retired. A shame since he's done some great work, but eventually people move on or are too busy or have health issues.

I'll definitely look into a tool. It would be - I won't say not hard but at least I know how to do everything. (I think. )

In case you haven't seen it, this is a presentation on the technical features of TS4. The last section goes into deformation maps in some detail, and the whole thing is pretty interesting. http://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vaul...eator_GDC15.pdf


May I suggest something? to you or anyone able to do it... A blender Plugin that would be able to translate the vertex deltas from the base shape to a morph, and then paint them as vertex colours so we could bake them on blender, with some simple options:
- Pair each coordinate with each channel (XYZ/RGB)
- Establish the "scaling" or intensity of vertex distance vs colour

For example, let's say you have a vertex that the initial position is 0,0/0,0/0,0 (XYZ). The shape key will move it to 0,1/1,2/-0,5. The addon would consider the original vertex position to be 128/128/128 RGB, and if we would set the "intensity" to 0,1=1, the vertex colour would be 129/140/123. I would do this myself if I could, but I would have to loose maybe 2-3 months just to be able to "learn" python and blender's API, and thats a huge task I'm not sure I'll be able to put myself through, as I'm a graphic artist/designer, learning programming languages is not really my thing.

I could create a new thread to talk about this, but to be honest, its a bit of a niche when it comes to modders, thats also why I suggested we could conduct the rest of the conversation elsewhere. While I believe that many ppl would like to have custom sliders, the number of modders willing or even able to do them, is quite limited, I do have experience in modding other games, and several times I've been the one and only modder to provide mods that edit or even add custom "body sliders" or more body shape customization.

As for that document, I have never seen it, so thanks for the link. It does include some new information, but most of it I already knew about, specially since I read carefully that thread where SimmyTheSim was posting. It also confirmed my suspicious on why EA decided to use this technique instead of regular mesh deformation, I can see plenty of benefits to it, its just a shame we dont have any tools to customize our own =(
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#42 Old 26th Mar 2017 at 6:04 PM
It's kind of ironic that TS4, which was created to allow a lot of customization and for which EA has supported modding, uses techniques that are much harder to mod than previous Sims versions.

Sorry, but I don't use Blender, really didn't like it when I tried it, and like you would have to do a lot of learning to write a plugin for it which I'm not eager to do. At this point I'm thinking of trying to work with .obj - easy, near universal, contains position and normals. It'll only work if the vertex order isn't changed, though, or possibly I could code vertex numbering in the UV, so I'll have do some testing. You'd load the base and morphed meshes in the tool and let it calculate the deltas and do the xyz to color conversion.

It would be great if someone else who's comfortable with Blender plugins could do one! But yeah, there's not a whole lot of people doing this kind of thing. In TS4 IMO it's at least partly because according to EA's information adding custom CAS sliders would be very difficult at best and working with DMAPs is very challenging.
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

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Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
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vectorplexus
Test Subject
#43 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 3:24 AM
Yes, I agree with you 100%. I started modding since TS1, and it looks like with each iteration, The Sims games get harder and harder to mod. The most modder friendly so far, for me was TS2. And I only bought TS4 recently because I had some friends asking me to mod it, because with TS3 I gave up pretty soon, due to having to wait 20 mins or so for the game to load... If you are modding and need to test out shit several times in the game, thats a huge turnoff, so I quit it entirely.

I'm used to work with OBJs, and keeping the vertex order/count, so thats really nothing concerning, and you are ofc right, working with OBJs is much more universal. Blender's problem is mostly the alien UI, but it has improved greatly since 2.5x, and its a matter of getting used to it. You are not alone when it comes to disliking Blender, I myself used to hate it, now its just another tool =)
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#44 Old 28th Mar 2017 at 5:52 PM
@vectorplexus - I've attached an updated s4pe with the CNTX fixed. The CAS Preset (CPRE) is added plus a couple of fixes for new versions, FYI. I need more time to try to catch version changes before doing the official upload - ex: the format of the JAZZ seems to have changed to a DATA file. EA is killing me with all these patch/version changes.

Oh man, TS3 load times! The last time I bought a PC I got a very fast one (not super gamer, but fast) specifically because I had to restart TS3 so much.

Thanks for the info about OBJ. I hope to start on a DMAP tool soon.
Attached files:
File Type: 7z  s4pe_V0.4.9-alpha.7z (1.57 MB, 46 downloads) - View custom content
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
vectorplexus
Test Subject
#45 Old 28th Mar 2017 at 10:41 PM
@CmarNYC

Thanks! you're a sweet! <3
HumALittle
Lab Assistant
#46 Old 9th Apr 2017 at 9:58 PM
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor)

at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)

at System.Reflection.ConstructorInfo.Invoke(Object[] parameters)

at s4pi.Helpers.RunHelper.Run(Type mainForm, String[] args) in F:\SourceTree\Sims4Tools\s4pi Extras\Helpers\RunHelper.cs:line 97
-----
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Entry point was not found.
at System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary`2.get_Keys()

at s3pi_STBL_Resource_Editor.MainForm.loadStbl(Stream data)

at s3pi_STBL_Resource_Editor.MainForm..ctor(Stream ms)

I was trying to edit the stbl of an existing mod
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#47 Old 11th Apr 2017 at 10:23 PM
I'm not getting an error with game STBLs. What existing mod is this? Are you able to open other resources successfully?
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

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Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
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HumALittle
Lab Assistant
#48 Old 13th Apr 2017 at 2:45 AM
Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
I'm not getting an error with game STBLs. What existing mod is this? Are you able to open other resources successfully?


It is ExtremeViolence-Serial Killer mod http://sims4studio.com/thread/7833/...&scrollTo=70439

Yes I can open other resources
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#49 Old 15th Apr 2017 at 2:13 AM
Still not getting an error while modifying the STBL using the grid. What are you using to edit it?
Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
HumALittle
Lab Assistant
#50 Old 15th Apr 2017 at 2:51 AM
Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
Still not getting an error while modifying the STBL using the grid. What are you using to edit it?


You mean like another program other than S4PE? Because I don't use any other Stbl editor.
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