Attention Modders: GUID Database Reminder & Tutorial
GUID DATABASE REMINDER & TUTORIAL
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About GUIDs
But Were Afraid to Ask
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No time (or inclination
) to read everything? Then look for the
marks!
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IMPORTANT: All the following information apply to
OBJECTS (technically, anything that contains an
Object Data (OBJD) file: Careers, Majors, career outfits and NPCs outfits, game controllers); it does NOT apply to recolours, BodyShop stuff, walls, fences, etc.
Remember: whenever your custom creation contains an
Object Data (OBJD) file, then you need to follow the instructions provided below.
INTRODUCTION
The "GUID" (acronym for Globally Unique IDentifier) is a unique number that identifies an object, making it different from any other object in the game.
It's extremely important that each object has its own GUID: if two objects share the same GUID, they will "conflict", and the game will be able to see only one of them!
In order to prevent conflicts between objects created by different modders, a special
GUID DATABASE has been set up.
The GUID Database is currently located at
SimPE site:
http://sims.ambertation.de/en/guiddb/.
Every object creator is strongly invited to create his/her own account in the GUID Database, so to avoid possible conflicts (read below to know how to create an account).
HOW THE GUID DATABASE WORKS
Once the modder has created an account, he can reserve a "GUID Block" for his exclusive use; a "GUID Block" (also called "GUID Range") is a group of 256 consecutive GUIDs, expressed in hexadecimal numbers, all having in common the first six characters (for example: from 0x
89ABCD00 to 0x
89ABCDFF).
Whenever the modder creates a new object, he can register a new GUID for it, picking it from his own GUID Block.
Most of the operations involving the GUID Database can be performed from within SimPE, without visiting the
GUID Database web page; in case of problems, however, it's always possible to connect to the web page and perform all the needed operations using the standard web interface (unless the site is down, of course
). In the following tutorials, we'll explain how to perform the various operations using SimPE's internal interface; an explanation of the GUID Web Interface can be found at the end of this post.
TUTORIAL - PART 1: HOW TO REGISTER A NEW ACCOUNT
This step must be done
only once: there is no need to register multiple accounts.
This Part 1 requires that you have already created your new cloned object; look at the following picture, and follow the instructions provided below.
- Open your package with SimPE; in the "Resource Tree" panel, select the "Object Data (OBJD)" entry; then select one of the OBJD that appear in the "Resource List" panel.
- In the Plugin View, click the link "Get GUID": a new window labeled "Register Object GUID" will pop up.
- Fill in a username of your choice (all in lower case, with no spaces or non-standard characters), then a password of your choice (again, avoid using odd characters and spaceds) and lastly your email.
- Click "Register new user": a small window will pop up, with a warning that you can just ignore, at the moment. Click Yes to proceed.
- After few moments (be patient), another little window will open up, saying "Welcome (your username)"; click OK to close it.
- The registration process is over: an account with your username and password has been created in the GUID Database, and your first GUID Block has been reserved for you.
- Now, the only thing left is to register your very first GUID: look at the following screenshot.
- Be sure that the "New Object" tab is selected.
- Fill in the name of your object in the "Object Name" field: I strongly suggest to use a descriptive name, otherwise you won't be able to retrieve the right GUID from the GUID list, if needed.
- Click "Register Object": the window will close and the new GUID will be automatically placed into your OBJD (in the "GUID" field).
- Click "Update MMAT and Commit", so to confirm the new GUID; leave unchecked the option "Update all MMATs" (read in the FAQ the difference between a normal "Commit", "Update MMATs and Commit" and "Update all MMATs").
TUTORIAL - PART 2: REGISTERING NEW GUIDs
This part of the tutorial requires that you have already registered an account to the GUID Database and reserved a GUID Block for yourself (as explained in Part 1).
NOTE: these steps must be performed
for every OBJD file in your package; if you package contains 10 OBJDs, you need to register 10 GUIDs!
In order to register new GUIDs for your object, open your package with
SimPE and look at the following picture:
- In the "Resource Tree" panel, select the "Object Data (OBJD)" entry; then select one of the OBJD that appear in the "Resource List" panel.
- In the Plugin View, click the link "Get GUID": a new window labeled "Register Object GUID" will pop up. Your username, password and email should already be there, if you have correctly registered your account (if you don't see your username, password and email, read the FAQs).
- Be sure that the "New Object" tab is selected.
- Fill in the name of your object in the "Object Name" field: I strongly suggest to use a descriptive name, otherwise you won't be able to retrieve the right GUID from the GUID list, if needed.
- Click "Register Object": the window will close and the new GUID will be automatically placed into your OBJD (in the "GUID" field).
- Click "Update MMAT and Commit", so to confirm the new GUID; leave unchecked the option "Update all MMATs" (read in the FAQ the difference between a normal "Commit", "Update MMATs and Commit" and "Update all MMATs").
- REPEAT the all the steps above for ALL the OBJD in your package!
TUTORIAL - PART 3: RESERVING AN ADDITIONAL GUID BLOCK
If you have already registered 256 objects, thus running out of GUIDs, you can
add another GUID block to your account.
IMPORTANT: please add a new GUID block only when you have completely used up your previous one! The GUIDs are limited, let's not waste them!
SimPE has a built-in function that counts the available (= not registered) GUIDs in your block; when the count reaches zero, the button "Add GUID Block" becomes active: just click it and a new block of 256 GUIDs will be reserved for you (the available GUIDs counts changes from zero to 256).
GUID MANAGEMENT USING THE WEB INTERFACE
Though
SimPE provides a useful built-in interface, as explained in the tutorials above, in some cases you may find useful to access the GUID Database using the standard web interface, i.e. connecting to the Database web page using your internet browser.
Using the web interface is extremely intuitive (no need for detailed screenshots here
).
Connecting to the
GUID Database Web Page you can perform many tasks, including (but not limited to) the ones explained in the tutorials above.
When you first connect to the GUID web interface you will see this page:
If you still haven't created your account, you can do it here, by clicking the "Register Account" link, and following the on-screen instructions.
NOTE - If you create an account on the web page, you can't specify a password (like you do using the
SimPE built-in interface); the password will be automatically generated and sent to the provided email address.
Once the account has been created, you can login (using your username and the password received by email).
IMPORTANT! Write your username all in lower case, or the system won't recognize you.
When logged in, the main page will change to this one:
From here, you can
reserve your first (or an additional) GUID block and
register a GUID for your object.
There is also an extremely useful function, that can be accessed only via web (it's not available in SimPE's built-in interface): you can
manage your already registered GUIDs.
If, for instance, you have registered a GUID by mistake, or you have specified a wrong Object Name while registering a GUID, you can easily access the list of all your registered GUIDs and
edit them at will.
Just click the link "
List my Objects" and you will get a full list of all your registered GUID, that you can conveniently sort by
Object Name or by
GUID number (click on the column titles: clicking the title again reverses the order). At the end of each line, you can see the two links
Edit and
Delete, whose purpose is obvious
Also from the GUID web page you can perform additional tasks, such as changing your preferences (including the password) and browsing other creators' registered GUIDs.