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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Jul 2019 at 10:04 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default How to fix wrong size objects in thumbnails?
Basically, I have a bunch of objects with terrible thumbnails because they are big objects cloned from tiny ones, so the game gives me a zoomed in thumbnail because it still thinks it's a tiny object. I knew how to fix this once upon a time by altering something in SimPE, but I've been sorting out my CC for the past two years now and in that time, the information has fallen out of my brain and I cannot for the life of me find instructions for fixing it; all the threads I can find about thumbnails are mostly about deleting the files in the thumbnails folder. Can anyone help me out here?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 26th Jul 2019 at 10:35 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 12th Sep 2023 at 5:49 PM.
It may be the fault of the CRES, depending on the object the item was cloned from.

- Go to the CRES in the mesh file.
- In the "Content" tab, click the Blocklist dropdown, then click on the "thumbnailExtension" line.
- If there is something in the "Items" box, click on it, then click the "delete" button in the right bottom corner.
- Click commit, and save the item.
- This should reset the item's thumbnail for good (if they don't reset, just delete the Thumbnail files and the changes will stick).

If the "items" box is empty, the item does not have a thumbnail file, and uses the actual bounding box (I think?) of the item instead of a preset.

I've done these changes to a lot of my old deco items (that I made before I knew anything at all and used the fruitbowl for 99% of my deco objects, wondering why all of them had a variety of issues), and they all turned out great, so now I can actually see them in the thumbs instead of a bunch of weird and empty ones. I can't remember where I found the tutorial on this, but possibly here on MTS (cudos to the one who showed me how to do it or made the tutorial, whomever it was). This method seems to only be an option for various deco items, though.

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A tip for small objects is to use the small, wooden statue of a man (the kind you draw in art class) - it doesn't have the thumbnail issue, and also has a lot of other nifty features too that makes it very handy for cloning. If you get a bit familiar with BHAVs too, it's possible to remove the "small deco object" BHAV that makes it pop onto shelves, which makes it very handy for making large but still one-tile items that don't think they're cute little shelf items ('cause they're not...).

(I know a lot of people love when items have proper grid tiles and footprints and all, but most of the items I do this for are meant for photoshoots and such, so I honestly don't care about the footprint. Plus, if I want to make them shiftable or placeable on OMSPs for whatever reason, having them one-tile tends to make that easier - if I want them to be anyhing else than deco items, I use something else to clone from)

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Some objects also count the shadows into the thumbnail footprint, so making the mesh of the shadow smaller (and editing the texture), or removing it if it isn't used anyway, can also help if you're not seeing an improvement just by deleting the CRES reference.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 26th Jul 2019 at 11:59 PM Last edited by sushigal007 : 27th Jul 2019 at 9:02 AM.
Ah, that sounds familiar, I'll give it a try, thank you!
ETA: Yes, that did the trick. :D
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#4 Old 29th Jan 2020 at 7:42 PM Last edited by sushigal007 : 29th Jan 2020 at 11:15 PM.
OK I know this is an old post, but it's my post and I see no point in making a new one for the same subject. So! I've been merrily deleting stuff I find in the CRES thumbnails to fix 'em, all good. There's been a couple that didn't have anything there but I decided I could just about live with it. Until today. I've been sorting my neighbourhood deco and fixing a few bad thumbnails, but there's a couple that elude me because there's nothing to delete and the objects are so tiny in the thumbnails, they almost look blank. I don't know anything about bounding boxes, but I had a search around and found some info on clearing it in the GMDC, which didn't make a difference. Then when I tried to preview the mesh there, it was also really teeny, which makes me think that's possibly the problem, even though the object looks fine in the game. But that's where my knowledge runs out. So does anyone know what I have to do to this object to give it a useable thumbnail?
Mad Poster
#5 Old 29th Jan 2020 at 8:19 PM
Do you happen to know which objects these ones are cloned from? It could give a clue as to how to fix it or what the problem is.
- Have you tried to manually update these thumbnails ingame?
- make sure the shadow mesh isn't too big.
- make sure the item is actually on the grid (you can do so ingame - it should be in the greeen square that appears when you're placing it). If the item is very off-grid, especially to the front, sides, up or down, it may not show properly.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#6 Old 29th Jan 2020 at 11:15 PM
I'm not at my computer right now, but I'll have a look when I get back to it and see if I can find some clues what they were cloned from. But in the meantime, yes, I tried manually updating the thumbnail, but it's neighbourhood deco and I don't think it has a shadow, and it definitely doesn't have a green grid.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 29th Jan 2020 at 11:21 PM
Ah. NBhood deco thumbs probably works different from furniture in those regards. What kind of object is it? Could still be an off-grid issue, or maybe even a texture issue (especially with transparent textures).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#8 Old 29th Jan 2020 at 11:28 PM Last edited by sushigal007 : 30th Jan 2020 at 11:08 AM.
The ones I remember most clearly are TS4 conversions, one is a stack of boxes and one is a table. I vaguely remember having the same problem with a NH tree too, but it was the box I was concentrating most on 'cause I figured I should try fixing just one rather than messing with all of them at once.

ETA: Looks like it was cloned from the neighbourhood archway.
Test Subject
#9 Old 12th Nov 2021 at 8:30 PM
I know this is an older post but is there a way to do this for poseboxes? They're at a strange angle and sometimes it's hard to see which is which, it'd be nice if it were possible to make a better thumbnail for them too!
Mad Poster
#10 Old 12th Nov 2021 at 11:10 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 17th Jan 2022 at 11:36 PM.
Some poseboxes are angled "upside-down" in the view. For my own poseboxes I've solved this by flipping the image I use for the texture upside-down, so it shows the correct way in the thumbnail and when you place it. Another way is to rotate the mesh (but make sure to do this properly, as rotating in Milkshape can cause the mesh to go dark because it can mess with the normals. Rotating in other programs usually don't cause the same issue). I don't think you an change much else about the angle the thumbnail is at.
Field Researcher
#11 Old 17th Jan 2022 at 9:10 PM
Hey, sorry for bumping an old thread but this tutorial was very helpful for me.

I was wondering if anyone can help with neighborhood objects? Is there a way to fix thumbnail for those?
Mad Poster
#12 Old 17th Jan 2022 at 11:42 PM
I'm guessing if it has a "thumbnailExtension" line, you can try the method above. I've opened a few files, and it looks like some have them, some don't.

Try to just fix the ones that need it, though. It's possible the thumbnail references help a bit to lighten the load if you have issues with pink-flashing and similar issues.
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