This is the first thread I've posted on MTS, so I'm kinda shy, but the Pets EP is so exciting it's broken my silence lol... and apathy it seems!

I want to attempt my own sliders, and I am curious, since it seems there's quite a demand for a height tweak in pets, that it's either inevitable someone makes one, or someone is already on it. I am totally new to modding, but if nobody can come forward and say they're doing it, I think I'll have to give it a try... just because I want it so bad and can't take the uncertainty, lol. Sorry if I failed to find out on my own, but ...can anybody confirm if there's someone actually attempting this?

We all love Delphy's height slider despite the clipping which is usually minor, so if we were to add a few inches taller or shorter on small and large dogs, this would open a whole new world for dog breeds... and am I wrong to think that it's totally worth the minor clipping? How severe might we expect it to be?

This could be dramatic on horses too, but might anyone be able to tell me if that would be problematic because of the rider? Would they float over or sink into the horse?? That wouldn't be good. Just a hand or two shorter and we'd have ponies. A height slider for horses might have to be something more like a universal SCALE slider though, if we want realistic drafts and ponies. Is this possible??

With the internet before me and my natural artistic skill I believe I can make it so.. as long as it's in the realm of possibility. This project is still in concept stage obviously as I don't even know for sure what can and can't be done, or what tools to get... I just have to have the info and enough time to read it all. I don't know how long or short it will take, but if others are helping, I will be that much more motivated so as not to let them down.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!!

Last edited by rhodalle : 2nd Mar 2012 at 5:53 AM. Reason: too underlined

The current difficulty with pet sliders is simply that the tools don't support them. That doesn't stop them being made, but it means we have to tweak the values manually instead of using fancy tools: and that means we need to work out which bone hash corresponds to which bone on the pet's actual body. That can be done by examining the pet rigs in a 3D editor, it's just a rather long and arduous process which, afaik, no-one has completed yet. Once we have that done, and have worked out through trial and error what all the region flags etc are for pets, there should be no particular barrier to making pet sliders - although we may need updates to the slider mods to allow for extra sliders for pets as well as sims.

Sims will probably float. A scale slider should be doable by scaling b__Root_.

In case anyone's working on this and can use them, I've attached what I hope is a complete or almost complete list of bone names with hashes. For one, I'd like to see a tail length slider.

I don't see a limit to the number of pet sliders in the code so far, but I'm not sure I'm looking in the right place.

Oooh, Cmar, you're a miracle worker!

LOL, it was good timing - just finished software to read .skcon files so I dumped all the bones from them into one listing.

Sure is! Wow... thank you both! I am going to enjoy educating myself at the very least. If anyone out there is both willing and better equipped to attempt this, that works just fine for me! lol I hope this thread helps motivate any person or persons who are inspired. This is a very craved mod already I think.

Hmm, floaty riders is a shame! lol It might not look so bad if the horse is scaled just a hair, I s'pose.... : / maybe someone can make a bigger, compatable mod, just to address that issue...? It would be a core mod, wouldn't it...? Thanks to script mods like woohooer, MC and romance recombobulator I think that I, and equestrian simmers would find we now have the space for a core mod like this.

For dogs, I think these sliders would be most useful:
leg length - for tall dogs, or even corgis if one wants to deal with the animation issues
body length - to help keep proportion if altering leg length and allow big slender dogs like greyhounds
overall size slider - just blows up the whole mesh and maintains girth, useful for horses especially (is this the kind of scaling you were referring to, Whiterider?)

Last edited by rhodalle : 2nd Mar 2012 at 6:23 AM. Reason: better phrasing

I've attached an updated version of the xml for Delphy's Bone Delta Editor. Replace the xml file in the folder with the Bone Editor and next time you start it, it should have the new bones listed.

I made a couple of attempts at a tail slider, but it doesn't show up in CAP. Must be some combination of the flags in the FBLN and/or FACE files that's not right. Delphy's slider template generator is of course written for human sims so the flags have to be tweaked with S3PE and tested in-game, which is a pretty slow process. I attached that package as well; it's currently set up for horses but doesn't show up in CAP. I have to do other stuff for a day or so but maybe someone else will want to work on this.

@rhodalle: Unless there's a new tool out there that I'm not familiar with, you need Delphy's small tools collection - specifically the "CAS Slider Template" generator, the "Bone Delta Editor", and maybe the Facial Blend Editor and Blend Unit Editor. (http://www.modthesims.info/d/372169) Basically the process is to make a template with the template generator, then extract the BONE files from the package, edit them with the Bone Delta Editor, and import them back in. Unfortunately you've picked a pretty advanced thing to mod, with extra problems because the tools are outdated - best to start by learning the basics of how meshes and skeletons/bones work, how morphs work, how to use s3pe, etc.

I had the same problem with the slider not showing up; I think I was halfway through comparing all the flags with an EA slider when... ah yes, I was poking around FullBuild looking for EA resources and got distracted by muliple tail meshes. Sounds like me.

Thanks for taking the time and giving me advice despite my being nothing more than a curious noob, lol... Yeah, I see what you mean, and I was prepared for it to be something I had to work my way up to. Just curious to know what's possible at this point and so glad that you and the helpful folks on this site are so generous and willing to help people like me and point us beginners in the right direction. You've contributed to the happiness of thousands! Thank you!

My main goal was really to kick-start a discussion on these mods and see how far the community had or will get with this... learning is a bonus.

Last edited by rhodalle : 2nd Mar 2012 at 8:13 PM.