Ts3pe

[mepwn12]

first of all, I hope this is the right section otherwise would a kind mod/admin please send it over to the right one?

TS3PE(The Sims 3 Package Editor)

okay so I woke up this morning and I thought: why is sims 3 modding so much harder than sims 2 modding?
I think It's because there are too many tools. back in TS2 era you had one basic tool: simPE. so I thought, what would it be like to have a program like that for TS3?

now don't get me wrong, the programs made for TS3 modding are amazing! the only thing is there are so many of them and theyre not that usefriendly.

I would personally LOVE to make a new program like simPE that has all the good things of all TS3 modding tools packed in one program with a user friendly GUI. It's just that I don't have enough experience with coding :(. the only language I know (only a little bit from minecraft modding) is Java, now that would be a good choice since its cross platform but It's also very hard to use :/.

My first question is pretty simple: "What would be the best choice of coding language? Java, C++, etc."

My second one is: "Where can I find good tutorials to get the ability to actually pull this idea off?"

Any comments are much appreciated and will be rewarded with alot of turtles O_O :turtle:
Thanks in advance everyone! ;)

[Inge Jones]

There is always room for new tools, so I hope you get round to doing something :) In the meantime, the TSR team have made a tool, Workshop, that does pretty much everything, similarly to SimPE, but with better previewing features (IMHO)

[mepwn12]

Thanks for replying so quickly :)
and I know about TSRW, I tried it and It's pretty good :P
one of the problems is that you can't edit the meshes in blender if it has a skeleton (except if theres a plugin for that)
and still It's very different from that good old simPE :P

[BloomsBase]

I kinda dissagree with Inge. there are way to many diffrent tools, people often give up creating as of all the tools they need.
If they are able to finally find and download them then the pain starts of installing them correct, i had so many pm's of people that can not manage, or do not understand how to....:(

Tsrw and s3PE/s3OC are both similar to Simpe, they are used to clone and create new packages.
Like with SImpe you still need other programs to edit the meshes and textures.

There is a GEOM plugin for Blender for TSRW's WSO files but not working properly, but neither are other ones.
All of them still have issues that needs to be fixed.(Reason i am no longer doing CASp.)
The WSO plugin for Blender for objects works fine i have been told.

[mepwn12]

yeah, I wish you could do it like with simPE again.
with good old .smd files :P (no not THAT kinda smd ;P) with those you could finally do everything you could do in milkshape but better :)

but now back on topic.
what would be the best choice for programming language?

[Inge Jones]

C# imho. :)

[mepwn12]

well at lest thats easier then c++ and java :P
ty for your reply.

[orangemittens]

Thanks for replying so quickly :)
and I know about TSRW, I tried it and It's pretty good :P
one of the problems is that you can't edit the meshes in blender if it has a skeleton (except if theres a plugin for that)
and still It's very different from that good old simPE :PThere is a working plugin for hair, clothes, and accessories for Blender users that also use s3oc/s3pe here:

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=443780&page=1

The one for objects is here:

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=433882

I'd be pretty surprised to find anything made for tsrw/Blender combination worked well, if at all, because the project appears to have been abandoned long ago and Blender has gone through several updates since then...most importantly the update to the 2.5 series with the new UI.

One thing to keep in mind if you want to make a tool is that you'll have to make plugins like these or the ones Wes made for Milkshape or else people will not be able to get things in and out of their 3D editor.

Good luck though...I'm with Inge...the more choices people have to create things with the more likely it is they'll find a tool they feel comfortable using :)