Is it possible to make Sims stay visible inside tents?

[porkypine]

Hi!

Is it possible to make sims stay visible when they enter tents? Why? We want to make livable tipis for both Sims 2 and Sims3.

I don't have the programming background to figure out what needs to be fixed so I was hoping someone already knows and is willing to share the steps, then I can learn how to do it and make some new meshes. We want to texture the inside as well as the outside of the tents/tipis. We would like the tents because they can be moved around on the lot.

Thanks for direction (other than to the highway or go play on the freeway. :jest: :rofl: )

[Srikandi]

Sims don't "go invisible" when they enter tents, like treehouses and rabbitholes in general... they just disappear. They are not inside performing sensible in-tent animations, just out of sight. Soooo I'd think you'd need to start with a conventional deco-type object... like a screen. It's just a matter of setting flags to make it possible to put that in the inventory and place it.

Did you want the sims to be visible inside the teepee through the door? Or have it go transparent like a tree from close-up, so you can see the sims inside? That strikes me as the difficult part about this.

I'm assuming that you want the sims to be CONTROLLABLE when they're inside the teepee... if you want it to function like a bed, where you just interact with the teepee and they enter it and sleep, you're going to need new custom interactions and animations, so maybe THAT'S the hard part ;)

In that case, you could start with a bed, and you'd have the right interactions... but the wrong animations, assuming they sleep at ground level inside.

[porkypine]

Hello! Nope I'd want it to be a liveable house, Ideally with walls that can be seen through and the sims can be controlled. We'd convert the sleeping bags for the beds. But you live in a tipi and do other things beside sleep, you cook on the fire, hang out and talk, etc. It's your house, except all in one room. Yes, the sims would have to have some animations like cooking on a reasonable sized (little) fire. lol. NO bonfires in the house! :lol:

We played with making a tipi mesh back when we were working on the Seminole project but shelved it when TS3 came out. We are revisiting it because we need them for future themes.

[Shimrod101]

If it were me I'd look at the Dome object which has the large garden inside in Bridgeport. Make it smaller, lengthen the top into a cone, change the walls, etc. Because the camera will move inside there, sims can do stuff inside, presumably one can buy furniture and live inside.

[Srikandi]

Ideally with walls that can be seen through and the sims can be controlled. We'd convert the sleeping bags for the beds. But you live in a tipi and do other things beside sleep, you cook on the fire, hang out and talk, etc. It's your house, except all in one room.

If it were me I'd look at the Dome object which has the large garden inside in Bridgeport. Make it smaller, lengthen the top into a cone, change the walls, etc. Because the camera will move inside there, sims can do stuff inside, presumably one can buy furniture and live inside.

Having played the Moon Base Delta world, where a lot of the houses are built under that dome, I gotta say I don't find it an ideal solution... you have to zoom way in before the camera will enter the dome, and it would be much worse with something the size of a tipi. (Had a friend who lived in one when I was in college, in the seventies ;) ) Still, it may be the best solution available... the tipi walls really CAN'T be actual wall objects, so getting them see-throughable would be hard? I recall seeing a thread where people were exploring modifying the fade behavior of build mode walls, with no success.

[douglasveiga]

maybe you can try to modify the "building shell" mesh, from Latenight, to make it looks like a tent. but i think will be difficult because each floor has an individual shell mesh (base, floor, roof).

so you will get a tent with the size of a normal house.

[porkypine]

Hey! Thanks for the ideas. I hadn't thought of the dome, or apartment shells! I'll poke around with that. I haven't played with any of the shells, but I have modified the internal apartments and they use standard walls so it would be experimental to see if the lobby shell could be meshed to look like a tipi. Something to work on... (enters task on long list)

Even if the walls don't drop down or have the ability to go transparent, at least the camera can get in the domes.... Yes, tipis are smaller than a house but these will be large, family sized tipis, not little college/kid tipis. Probably 30 foot diameter, firepit in the middle, people have their spots around the fire, wood by the door, etc.... this really gives me some hope we may be able to pull this off. Thanks!

I haven't played with Sims2 in awhile.... Does anyone remember, Are the greenhouses a mesh item or is it a buildable?... I think it is a buildable item.....

[douglasveiga]

Hey! Thanks for the ideas. I hadn't thought of the dome, or apartment shells! I'll poke around with that. I haven't played with any of the shells, but I have modified the internal apartments and they use standard walls so it would be experimental to see if the lobby shell could be meshed to look like a tipi. Something to work on... (enters task on long list)

Even if the walls don't drop down or have the ability to go transparent, at least the camera can get in the domes.... Yes, tipis are smaller than a house but these will be large, family sized tipis, not little college/kid tipis. Probably 30 foot diameter, firepit in the middle, people have their spots around the fire, wood by the door, etc.... this really gives me some hope we may be able to pull this off. Thanks!

I haven't played with Sims2 in awhile.... Does anyone remember, Are the greenhouses a mesh item or is it a buildable?... I think it is a buildable item.....

buildable, the wall is a normal wall with glass mesh.