Help with my first modding project, please? Modding effects I think.

[Wardah]

I have the sparklers from the Happy Holiday stuff pack and I was wondering how I would go about adding new colors besides white for them. I have SimPE but I have never modded before other than simple object recolors with Object Workshop.

[MogHughson]

I'm guessing that your first problem is finding the sparklers in the Object Workshop? If you could find them then your existing recoloring skills would follow from there? Or have you found them, but your way you previously recoloured other objects doesn't work on them? Hopefully if we hear how far you've got, we can provide further help.

Cheers
Mog :Pint:

[Wardah]

I could not find the sparkles in the TXTR file so while I could change the color of the box and maybe the stick itself, normal recoloring methods would not change the part that really matters. I think because it is an animated effect it must be located somewhere else inside the object. I decided to make each color a separate box at this point so I don't need to deal with assigning slots yet. Right now I am currently trying to just get a clone of the box to show separately but once I get that to work I really have no clue what to do after that.

[MogHughson]

Hmmm - editing effects is not something I've tried. Suggest changing your first post's title to something like "Help with editing effect please" to catch the eye of anyone who has played with that sort of thing.

[HugeLunatic]

Does the sparklers have a TXMT for the them? For the sparkles themselves? It could be taking colors similar to glass where it is a set of RGB values.

[Wardah]

There is a TXMT in there but I have no clue about what any of that means. I really need to be pointed in the right direction cause once I can make one color I can make more. I have a feeling it might be similar to the way these recolors for the projector lights (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=91047) were made.

[HugeLunatic]

I looked at the sparklers and they are not recolorable. Which would be why you cannot recolor them. You would need to clone a new object and then make it recolorable. I don't think it is anything similar to the link for lights since there are no light files in the sparklers or links that I could see to any light files. I looked in the bhavs but nothing jumped out at me.

The accessory_sparklers is just the stick part and it uses the same texture as the box.

This tutorial shows how to add a subset and make it recolorable, but you can just follow the part about making it recolorable.

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=103379

[Wardah]

I have cloned it and made it into a new object. I even gave it a new box design! I know "recoloring" the sparkles is not going to use the same methods used to recolor normal objects. There is nothing for the sparkles in the TXTR file the only thing that sort of sounds promising is in the CRES hierarchy there is a line "0x6:slot_accessorysparkler_sparkle_fx" and a bunch of letters and numbers after it. I just wish I knew what all that means.

[HugeLunatic]

ah, I didn't look in the cres for any fx. I've never looked at fx before so I'm unsure of how one could change them. I will take a look at that object again tomorrow. But I think that may be a key yes. It might be possible to include a modified fx in your package, I know you can add effects but I thought it was always existing ones.

http:/www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=145518

Maybe this will get you started figuring the fx out in the meantime.


Ok after studying the package again I guess I can see why I didn't look in the cres, there wasn't anything related to the effects in the Text Lists. The link I gave above tells where the effects files are stored, but it also says they are non-editable. Now given that was in 2006 it is possible you can now edit them, but I haven't a clue. Plus the effects, I think they are being called from the animations themselves. I've looked through the bhav's and I only see them calling animations and not the fx.

[Wardah]

Even if nobody has figured out how to edit the existing effects, I know these have been some objects with new effects. I know someone made a Goblet of Fire with blue flames. I could be wrong but the black fog used with the apple sculptures in the thread linked doesn't come in the game does it? I do have another interesting idea. I wonder if any of the existing effects could come out of the "sparkler"? Then one could make "magic wands".

[HugeLunatic]

Yea the black fog I think is the black death smoke. And looking through the holiday pack files I didn't see a specific fx for the sparklers. I suppose you could change the effects following that tutorial to something else. I know there are fireworks effects outside of the sparklers. I really should go test those sparklers in game. :lol:

Took a look at the Goblet of Fire by boblishman and it is cloned from a light, has no effects in it. I suspect it has a custom light resource in it. I've not seen it in game. Echo made a wand of some sort, and I think it glows.

[Wardah]

Maybe I am going around this project the wrong way. Does it matter if I actually change the sparkles themselves or is how the player perceives the sparkles what matters? I was testing the sparklers in front of a sim house that has different colored wall windows and got to thinking, what if I placed a colored transparent sphere around just the sparkles themselves? The sparkles would then appear to be a different color even though the actual sparkles have not been changed at all. The only thing that might be tricky besides that I'll have to learn how to make a mesh is to make the ball only appear when the sparkler is lit. I might also want to tackle how to make the sphere's texture animated so I can have it cycle through colors. Could this be a workable solution?