Piles of Files

[fanseelamb]

Please post your files in this thread so we have them all in one handy place.

You don't HAVE to post them if you're not ready to share, but you are WELCOME to post them if you need testers, need people to take screenshots or upload them to the group account (cough*MLC*cough), or just want to upload them for safekeeping so you don't accidentally lose them.

All group members promise not to share the files beyond the group. Right? Right. Excellent. :up:

[fanseelamb]

Here is the coffin mesh file, updated yet again. In this version I have set the catalogue description to "default lang only" so you get the new description in non-English games. Hopefully I haven't broken anything else in the process. :D .

[mustluvcatz]

I'll get mine posted- was waiting til they're all done, if that's ok. :)

[fanseelamb]

Of course that's okay! Take all the time you need.

[mustluvcatz]

I know, I know- NOT DONE!! Bad MLC, lol.

The end of June is always so busy around here. It being so hot and humid hasn't helped any either- 100 F with 90% humidity anyone? Bleh. I can handle heat- the humidity is what makes me feel like my battery has been drained. I haven't felt like doing anything harder than lifting a finger when I've been home. BUT- I'm working on finishing up some things today. Can't promise I'll get it all done, and I've got things to do tomorrow and Friday. The 23rd can hurry up and get here already: that's when I get a WHOLE WEEK to myself and don't have to go anywhere or do anything!!

[fanseelamb]

Oh no worries, MLC. Take all the time you need. I haven't been feeling much like taking pics lately anyway so it's fine by me. :P Thanks for the update though! :)

[Michelle 111]

My grunge recolours and 'Beary Cute Vampire'

[fanseelamb]

That looks great, Michelle. :)

I made a collage of all my vampire bed colours but it kinda sucks. :/

Plus I've got these old blue background pics. I figure we can use a few of them to show how the colours match the Ikea dresser. Plus they're nice and big, which is nice. We're allowed 12 pics per post. For the main post we still need:


pic of the vampire bed and MLC's objects in a room together, nicely laid out, against a contrasting solid wall so the objects stand out well

collage(s) of the objects from different angles - for the vampire bed that means back/side shots plus a top-down view to show the bedding

pic of vampire bed in use with lid closed - perhaps a gif like in this post (http://fanseelamb.tumblr.com/post/19656391380/made-this-vampire-bed-with-lees-help-a-while) but with the working lid

maybe a better collage of all my colours :/

eye catching thumbnail

MLC if you'd like to take some of the pics please go ahead! I haven't been feeling particularly upload-motivated lately, and am not too experienced in object photography anyway.

[mustluvcatz]

I was slacking for a reason. The dresser. Animated objects. My broken kitchen has animated objects. So. Anyway, I sucked it up and put my big girl panties on. :) There is one little flaw that I didn't see in MilkShape so I has to fix that and there are no slots. (No slots? I thought all in game dressers had slots? Ah well, I'll add them.) I tested the dresser with testing cheats on and it didn't give me any errors- so hopefully it's fine.

There is no chair for the desk. Should there be? (The fish boss said yes and I'm hoping she forgot about it....and that she doesn't read this!) If there should be a chair- I have no idea what it should look like. There are chairs in game that look fine with it- if anyone has the Ikea pack there's that one chair with the holes in it. I think that's from Ikea.

Here's a pic- I'll fix that little flaw (and the shadows- just a small fix for those, yay!) that you can't see but I know it's there!

http://i49.tinypic.com/2vwh6jm.jpg

[fanseelamb]

Oh wow, there's a dresser too! An animated one! And I'd forgotten about the desk! It all looks great, MLC. When you say chair I picture a simple wooden chair with sturdy legs and back, and cushioned seat. Perhaps the seat cushion could be taken from that basegame chair that looks sort of like a desk chair, with the round fabric covered seat and back. But of course it's entirely up to you. If you don't feel like making a chair, then no chair.

I can't wait to see this stuff in game. :D .

[mustluvcatz]

A dresser? Correction. There are TWO dressers. :) I couldn't make up my mind about the first one- it's rather tall and looked kind of "out of place" to me. So I did a short one, intending to just reuse the GUIDs. THEN I thought- "Why do that? There's no reason there can't be two dressers". So two dressers it shall be.

Hopefully this will all be finished up today.

[fanseelamb]

LOL! Yeah now that you mention it, that top drawer is higher than the sim's head. She'd never be able to reach it! I'm pretty sure there are similarly tall Maxis dressers though. I'm partial to the shorter ones myself.

[mustluvcatz]

There ARE Maxis dressers that tall. I cloned one to make that dresser- the Werksomethingorother. At the time I wasn't thinking properly- there is a shorter CC version of that dresser and that's the one I thought I was cloning. Yes, I did notice it was rather tall in MilkShape but didn't realize how tall until I saw it in game.

[mustluvcatz]

Well, let me clean up the catalog descriptions and adjust the prices a bit.. but I'm done! :)
I DID change my mind about the tall dresser, it just didn't look right- the smaller one looks much better.

I think I'm going to upload the chair myself since it needs Ikea. (And one of the other mods told me not to mix requirements.) I'm also going to see if some of the vampire bed textures can be modified to use as recolors for the chair.

Fake edit: GAH!! I wasn't even thinking about the dresser handles..that looks silly because she's grabbing TWO handles and there is only one on the drawer. Guess I should add a handle? Never mind that! She wasn't opening or closing the drawer at that time. (I was wondering how I'd never noticed that non-existent flaw.)

[fanseelamb]

Ooh I love the chair! I think we should try to get it in one whole-set pic even if you're gonna post it separately. Do the dresser drawers and handles have shadows around them? I don't see any but maybe it's just hard to tell in that pic.

ETA: I was in a silly mood and wrote up descriptions of all your items, MLC. Feel free to use them if you want. They're in this WIP upload post (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=479178).

[mustluvcatz]

Dresser, desk, table, shelves. I'll upload the desk chair on my own and the tall dresser isn't going to be used.

Sorry it took me so long- every time I went to take some pics I'd see something I wasn't 100% happy with. I spent most of today tweaking meshes and am finally happy with the way they all look. :)

[fanseelamb]

Oooh yay!

*loads game excitedly*

ETA: Perhaps we should make a collection file for everything.

ETA 2: After I place the "daystand" in game I'm unable to pick it up or change the colour with the design tool. Can't even use the eyedropper tool on it. Not sure what's going wrong here. I have all EPs and SPs installed. I can put things on it, but they sink into the top a bit like the table is too high or the slots are too low.

ETA 3: Omigosh, look how cute the desk is with stuff on it and with this Maxis chair! I took a pic of the daystand next to it so you can see how the lamp and bottle sink in a bit. The desk places and recolours just fine. About to check the other objects now.

ETA 4: Oh I hadn't realized the shelves are 3-in-1. They are very cute. My description needed a bit of a rewrite though huh. :lol: Are they supposed to be placeable in the middle of a room? I expected them to need a wall to stick to, but they're letting me place them in the middle of a room. They do shift and recolour just fine, and the slots are great.

ETA 5: Those disappearing shadows on the dresser are weird. I notice they also disappear when I have the dresser picked up with the hand tool... kind on intermittently when I move the hand a tiny bit. It reminds me of how doors and windows are finicky and flip around when I move the hand tool a little. Could it be something kind of like that? I have no idea how it works behind the scenes, just the behaviour reminds me a bit of how windows and doors behave. Although it's super weird how the shadows disappear when the drawer is open. Perhaps something to do with the animation/morph? It works fine otherwise and I wouldn't consider the shadow thing a big deal at all.

ETA 6: I took the liberty of editing the object descriptions a tiny bit. Replaced "Fanseelamb" with "The Coffin Crew", fixed the dresser description which still had the desk wording, edited a few little typos. I also added an extra blank line to try and separate the technical description from the silly description. Haven't checked it in game to see how that worked out though. I really must go to bed now, but will finish up that collection file I mentioned tomorrow. Oh, also compressorized these object files - it saves a high percentage of space and bandwidth!

[mustluvcatz]

The daystand: Darn it! I thought I had fixed the bounding box- it's "broke" which is why you can't pick it up or use the design tool on it. The slots? I had noticed that some custom meshes sink in a bit and I can't do anything about that. I HADN'T noticed that Maxis stuff sinks in- it's just a tiny bit and more noticable with some stuff. I'll fix that and the bounding box. Edit: Fixed and fixed.

The shelves: Yep, they'll place anywhere. I cloned an end table for those and end tables don't require a wall behind them apparently. Would you rather the shelves need a wall behind them? I can add the BHAV.

The dresser: I honestly have no idea why the shadow mesh flickers like that. It could be that it's too close to the dresser mesh. It looks fine in MilkShape- as in it's not too close. That mesh and the desk mesh are actually the same mesh as the daystand. All I did was move things around and add/remove stuff as needed. Since the dresser works like it's supposed to the flickering isn't a problem. But I do know of at least 2 dressers that I can look at. (I'm not the only one who adds shadow meshes so I'll take a look at those and see what might be different.) Adding the shadow mesh to the dresser mesh didn't work at all, all that did was make the front of the dresser by the drawer disappear when the drawer was opened. Edit: Seems that I was wrong. The dressers I was thinking of are armoires and don't have shadow meshes. Myself? I can live with the flickers while placing and the few seconds of disappearing. Might be a good idea to mention that though.

The catalog descriptions: OMG! 100% better! Feel free to edit any of mine at any time. I suck at them- I'm more of a "Here's this, it does this." type of person when it comes to those. Odd considering I DO have a sense of humor and can write wickedly funny little stories. The dresser had the desk description? Oops. I must've been distracted.. *whistles nonchalantly*. Typos? Um..no comment.

A collection file is a good idea. :)

Edit again: The compressed dresser won't show up for me- although I think it's because I edited it (not sure if it showed up before the edit). If I'm not mistaken some compressed meshes can't be edited/don't take well to being edited. (Don't ask me where I read this..) The uncompressed version shows up fine and I can edit it. I've copied the new catalog description over to it and will attach it to this post once I make sure all is well now. I'd attach it now but um.. I kind of got sidetracked looking at new posts at various forums, including here. :D

[fanseelamb]

Ack, sorry, I had no idea that compressing files could mess up the ability to edit them. I won't do that anymore, at least not until they're completely complete. :/

Shelves: Well since they're wall shelves I expected them to require a wall. It's not a big deal really, just seems to make sense.... avoid accidentally placing them a square away from the wall or something. I would make them require a wall if it's easy to do. If it's hard to do then keeping them as-is is just fine.

Dresser: Yeah the flickering shadow is super weird and I'm curious what's causing it. But it's no big deal since the shadow is there 99% of the time. Not worth tearing any hair out over.

Daystand: Fixed file please? :D

I'm glad you don't mind my fiddling with the object descriptions a bit. I'll get on the collection file now. Is there a way to make the same collection file work for residential AND community, or do you have to make 2 separate ones? It seems I haven't made one of these before. Did figure out how to add a custom icon though, yay!

ETA: Oh I was also thinking about how to package the files for upload. Was thinking we could have one "everything" file with... everything. Then one file for each object in case people only want 1 or 2 pieces. Was thinking I'd include the basic Ikea "Malm" matching wood recolours with the coffin vampire bed mesh, then the colourful Ikea "Lack" matching recolours in another file, and the other recolours (more woods + silver) in a third file. That way people won't need to get a huge recolour pack if they only want some basic colours. Am open to suggestions though if anyone has a better plan!

[mustluvcatz]

Yeah, guess the fixed daystand file would come in handy. :faceslap: The shelves now REQUIRE a wall behind them and still allow object intersection.

All 4 files are in the .rar- I figured since 3 had been changed it was better to put them all together. (See the FINAL in the rar name? Do ya? Huh?? Do ya?!?)

Collection File: If you don't have Pets, you'll have to make 2 collection files, one for Residential and one for Community. I THINK. (If I'm remembering correctly, you can make a file for both if you have Pets.)

Your idea for uploading makes sense. Sure, it makes for a lot of files and the download count won't be reflected "correctly" (not that it ever bothers me) but it IS a good idea to split stuff up when there will be so many choices. In fact, I got a CR once recommending that I split my files up like that...since there was a billion of them..like I tend to do.

[fanseelamb]

Hmm. I do have Pets. I will experiment a bit. Thinking maybe I can make 2 separate ones then just combine them in SimPE? Having 2 separate collection files just seems so sloppy and confusing.

Speaking of expansions, I was just in game and noticed that the dresser claims to require OFB (according to the show EPs cheat). Is that accurate? I know everything else needs NL because of the vampire bed but the cheat says it only needs basegame, so idk how accurate this cheat is.

Thank you for editing everything a bazillion times, MLC. I had to do that with the vampire bed *glares at MLC a little* so I know how frustrating it is. But I think we've all pushed each other to come up with a much better set in the end, so yay!

[mustluvcatz]

If you use the Collection Creator you CAN make a collection file that's for both- instead of making separate files- if you have Pets. You have Pets. :) Should work then.

Dresser. OFB. OFB isn't even checked off in Preferences in SimPE! Excuse me while I go throw a temper tantrum. *time passes* Ok. I did notice something in the OBJD but didn't think much of it at the time. *more time passes* Alright- it's now basegame. (Edited and checked in game - it says Available in The Sims 2.) Which means an edited file is attached. I'm going to go shoot SimPE now.

Edit: Attached JULES chair on wheels so Fansee can include it in the collection file/files.

[fanseelamb]

Uh, I'm using the game's collection maker thing. Never even heard of the "Collection Creator". What I did was make separate residential and community collections, then combine them in SimPe by dragging both .package files into a new file, and replaced the icon with a custom one. Is that okay? I wouldn't want the collection to REQUIRE Pets. I have to edit it now to add a couple items, so will see how that goes.

ETA: Ummm... the chair.... can't be placed on quartertiles with that quartertile cheat....

/me ducks for cover

[mustluvcatz]

Collection Creator (http://forum.jfade.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=58) - that's what I always use. I didn't know you could do what you did. Well... I know you can make collections in game but I didn't know you could open them in SimPE. As long as it works, it should be okay I'd think.

Hey Fansee! Did you know you had love secret (#9) this week? (http://simsecret.livejournal.com/150642.html#cutid1)

[fanseelamb]

Aww, that secret is so sweet! It was YOU wasn't it! Thank you! :lovestruc

Ohh that collection maker does look handy for adding an entire folder's worth of files... and custom icon. :faceslap: Perhaps I will try it and see if it comes up with a smaller file than the way I'm doing it. But my main concern is, will a community/residential two-in-one collection require Pets?

[mustluvcatz]

Not sure about the community/residential collection- try it and I could try the file to see if it works? (Since I don't have Pets.) It'll either work or it won't and I'm curious to see if it will.

The secret: I can't take credit for it. It wasn't me. I only read them and link to them if needed. :) It is sweet though!

[fanseelamb]

Well I fail at using the Collection Maker program. The "add" button was greyed out so I couldn't actually make a collection. IDK. It said PETS is required for the "both" option so I assume it won't work without Pets anyway, which would suck.

Here's the collection I made with SimPE. It should work for community and residential, and have everything in it (the vampire bed, MLC's furniture including chair, Shell's cute vampire bear, and my Tru Blood bottles. I see no reason why it would require Pets, but if you wanna test and let me know how it works, that would be great. :)

Would also be great to add Nix's preliminary music box so that it magically appears in the collection whenever Nix is ready to upload the final version.

ETA: Michelle, your grungy recolours look very cool in game. I especially like the distressed woods. There's an invisible base recolour though, is that on purpose or is something messed up with the file?

And MLC, the Daystand works great now! Just tried putting some items on it (that same bottle and lamp) and they don't sink in at all! Yay!

[mustluvcatz]

Ah, to make a new collection with the Collection Creator you have to click the asterisk-looking symbol before you can add stuff. No worries though, collection file got made and it shouldn't require Pets.

Yay for non-sinking objects! :) That little tiny nudge (0.01 added to whatever it was) is all it took.

[fanseelamb]

Alright so, here are the completed (crosses fingers) files. While zipping 'em up I realized that Ikea puts the Swedish set name all in capitals, so I changed the object descriptions to "SÖMNIG" to make 'em nice and authentic. It was a quick easy change so why not.

I would be glad to edit the collection file if anyone has something to add to it. Otherwise, hopefully these are done. Of course do report back if anyone finds issues with any of the files!

Once the main post is up, MLC can post the chair on her profile, Michelle can post the bears and grungy recolours on her profile, and Nix can post the music box on her profile (whenever she's ready, there is no rush at all!) I didn't put my fangy bunny recolours in the collection because I didn't want the normal Maxis bunny appearing for folks who don't even have my recolours. I'm thinking of posting those bunnies on Leefish if she'll have 'em. Sort of a small token of thanks to leefish.nl for bringing this group together and getting this whole set created.

Oh, and we need to get BO to post the Sleep Caller mod so we can link to it! Don't want those precious vampires burning up in the sun. :blink:

[mustluvcatz]

THAT is a pile of files! Can't wait until they're all up!

[fanseelamb]

The post still needs lots of work, but lookit my pretty table (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=479178&styleid=24)! *beams proudly*

While making that the question arose in my mind: the shelves are in Surfaces > Shelves. But what if you don't have OFB? Where do those people look in the catalogue?

[mustluvcatz]

That is one sexy table! You should be proud of it!

That's a good question and I have the answer. I looked around for the best solution (since I can't remember what catalog icons were enabled with what EPs). The shelves are now found in Surfaces>Misc (ala Numenor's "Illumutations" shelves. And dang it! I never thought of that and always put my shelves in Surfaces>Shelves!) Anyone who doesn't have OFB should be able to find the cube shelves now.

My addition to this: On a community lot the shelves and daystand are now in the Misc section of the Community Sort tab. The other 2 meshes were there and I was having trouble finding those 2. Now they're all in the same section and easily found.

One last thing: I didn't have the version with SOMNIG all in caps..so the attached versions are Somnig. (I don't even know how to get that little symbol over the O!)

[NixNivis]

Ta-daa! One piece of music box, as requested. :D It's not the finished version, it only has one music selection at this point and it doesn't do anything to the Sims' motives, but I won't be changing the GUID or anything, so it is collection-ready. It can be found under Deco -> Misc. and costs $99, and it can of course be placed in deco slots and on shelves :) It's the highest-poly object in the lot - 916 polys.

(Hmm, I just realised it might be a little big for MLC's shelves - I'll to have to check that. I'm not up to resizing it right now, though; since it'd mean changing the size of the skeleton it would also mean making new animations, and I just got them where I want them. I'll fix it before I upload it, though!)


Edit: Fansee, that is a very pretty table indeed! :bunny:


Edit II: Dangit, the music box is too big for MLC's shelves. :cry: But if I were to scale it down so that it fits on the shelves, then it would be so small you'd have to zoom in quite close to see the animation properly, and I'm not sure I want that.

Opinions?

[mustluvcatz]

Nix: I wouldn't touch the size of the music box. It's perfect the way it is and fits on the dresser slots perfectly. So- do.not.touch.it!! :) If you made it small enough to fit on the shelves I'd cry, lol.

[NixNivis]

Aww, I don't want you to cry, MLC. :) I promise I won't touch it (and it actually makes me a little relieved, because I was *not* looking forward to repositioning all those joints).

[fanseelamb]

Yeah, the music box should stay nice and big so it can be seen properly! It's okay that it doesn't fit on the shelves - it'll fit on the other surfaces beautifully!

Re: the Cube Shelves: Darn. It's easier to find them in the shelves category if you do have OFB (or AL right?). But yeah I guess "misc" is best... why limit it to requiring OFB when there's no technical need. Too bad they can only be placed in one category. I'm gonna change it back to "shelves" for personal use - maybe we can just offer both options in the upload.

Good thinking on the community sort tab too. I never use that - always use room sort - so didn't even think to check there! And no worries about the all caps name - turns out I missed some occurrences in all the descriptions so need to edit them again anyway. :faceslap:

ETA: Just tried the music box in game. OMG it's brilliant! The animation is AMAZING... when he turns his head... OMG. ::applauds madly::

So I'm adding that to the collection. Have fixed the furniture descriptions again. Have made a "shelf" category and "misc" category version of the shelves (from MLC's latest one with correct community sort) so we might as well upload both. I'm just not sure which version should be in the "everything" file.

[mustluvcatz]

Offering both is a good idea-- as long as it's clear that one version is for non-OFB and the other is for OFB. You know, a big old sign- with blinking lights- saying "Download THIS version if you don't have OFB. The shelves will be in Surfaces>Misc" & "Download THIS version if you DO have OFB. The shelves will be in Surfaces>Shelves."

Cuz, you know.. some people don't actually read and could use visual aids. *rolls eyes* Ok, ok..not a blinky sign but that should be in the attachment description at the very least. (I know I read those.)

P.S. You could just use the version I didn't edit from the "compete" download a couple posts back for the OFB Version.

[fanseelamb]

Oh I thought you had changed the community sort category on it so I used the new one. No biggie, category is the easiest thing to change and I had to fix the description again anyway. And yes, of course it'll have to be labelled clearly. I suppose the non-OFB one should go in the "everything" file since that will work for everyone. It's not just OFB though right? Bon Voyage and Apartment Life also came with shelves. So I guess the shelf version will work if you have any of those 3 EPs.

[mustluvcatz]

The new version is the one I changed the category on (to Surfaces>Misc) and the community sort. The one in the "everything" file is the one that is/was still Surfaces>Shelves and I didn't touch the community sort at all.

[fanseelamb]

Right. So now the NEW new one is in Surfaces>Shelves and Community>Misc. And the second one is in Surfaces>Misc and Community>Misc. Umm. Is that wrong? Should it the shelf version be somewhere else? I hate community sort and never use it so am not the best one to ask. The new daystand seems to be in Community>Surfaces actually so idk what I've done wrong. :/ I checked in SimPE and the community sort number on it is 128.

I'm testing some other things and then will re-rar and post the newest set of files.

[mustluvcatz]

128 will put objects in well.. you know how the Community tab has Food, Dining, Outdoors, etc? One of those "sorts" is Misc and that's where 128 will put them. Which is fine. As long as the stuff is available for community lots, where it is isn't that big of a deal. (Actually, I couldn't even find the shelves and daystand this morning while on a community lot- which is why I edited both of them. They were there on the Buy mode tab but I didn't see them anywhere on the Community tab.) So you can consider that stuff done & dusted. :)

[fanseelamb]

LOL yeah. I understand now. I'm so unfamiliar with community sort that I didn't realize "surfaces" is INSIDE the "misc" category. Duh. Community sort is horrible. Okay so it's all good now, and the music box is in the collection too. Yay!

ETA: I attached all the FINAL (*crosses fingers*) files to the WIP upload post (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3882473&posted=1#post3882473), along with descriptions. But the descriptions are kinda detailed and it's all a bit hard to read. Ack. Hopefully the download thread view formatting will pretty it up a bit. I do think it's good to put the info there right with the files.... just hope it's not too hard to see what's what.

So now... we need pics. The post needs a bit more polish. And we need BO to post the sleep caller mod. I will nudge him about that.

ETA 2: Alright I think the post text (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3882473&posted=1#post3882473) is ready to go. Give it a read and please post any questions or corrections in that thread!

[NixNivis]

For everybody who aren't mods and can download stuff from the queue - here's the finished music box. :) The files (music box + music) are in a folder and thus won't overwrite anything, so make sure you delete the old version if you have it.