Create your own no effects mod tool (updated 07/02/2013)

10/17/2013: The tool still works with patch 1.63. I don't expect them to make any changes to the effect resource format after the last EP, so this is probably the final version of the tool (at least as far as patch updates go).
07/02/2013: Fixed a bug that caused packages for games patched to 1.38 or older versions to be broken. If your patch level is 1.42 or later, you should be fine. Thanks bunnypig for reporting the issue!
06/18/2013: Update to fix issues with patch 1.55 in s3piwrappers.EffectResource.dll. As always, make sure to create a new package for the patch.



So maybe you don't actually mind the automatic memories for important moments, but the smileys ruin all your wedding photos. Or you'd like to use the Eye Candy reward but don't want your sim to sparkle for the rest of their sim life.

This is a tool that makes it easy for you to switch off visual effects you don't want to see!

Usage: Copy the package that the tool creates into your mod folder. Only use one package at a time! (In particular, if you have the No Mosaic mod, remove that and uncheck "simcensorfx" in the tool instead to get rid off the mosaic, in addition to other effects you want to kill.)

Note: Mods created with this tool override the _SWB resource (TGI: 0xEA5118B0-0x0051185B-0xAE1859FADE0A9056) from DeltaBuild0.package and will conflict with all others that do so (e.g. my No Mosaic mod).

Game version: This should work with older and future patches, as long as the effects wrapper can read the resource in DeltaBuild0.package. Make sure to always create a new package if a new patch comes out. This is especially important for new EPs that introduce new effects.





Requirements: The tool requires .NET Framework 4.0 to run.

Instructions:
a) Unzip the tool
b) Start TS3_Effects_Mod_Maker.exe.
c) (optional: If the tool cannot read the Installation directory of the Sim 3 base game from your registry it will prompt you for it.)
d) It might take a few seconds for the GUI to appear since it has to read all effects first.
e) Uncheck the effects you don't want
f) Click save and enter the path where you want to save your mod package (e.g. in your mod folder)
g) Wait for a message to pop up that confirms your file was saved (this should only take a few seconds)
h) Close the tool and test the package in game


Import/Export

You can click "Export List" to export a complete list of all effect names into a text file.

"Store Unchecked" will save a text file with all currently unchecked effect names.
"Load Unchecked" will allow you to load a text file. Every effect in the text file will be unchecked in the tool. (Previously unchecked effects will remain unchecked.)

Tip: For easy updating after each patch, save a list of the effects you always disable. When the next patch rolls around you can simply start the tool and load the previously saved list and the tool will uncheck all those effects for you.


Filter
Since there are thousands of effects, I also added filter functionality to the tool.

How the filter works:

Enter a filter word and click filter to narrow the list down to the effects that contain the filter word.
If the result of the filter will display less than 200 effects, the tool will narrow the list down even as you type (i.e. without having to click the "Filter" button).
If the result of the filter is more than 200 effects but you still want to see them all, you'll have to click the "Filter" button.
(I swear it's not as complicated as it sounds )

You can also click the "Checked" or "Unchecked" button in the filter toolbar to filter for all currently checked or unchecked effects respectively.

Next to the filter buttons you can always see how many effects are currently visible and how many the current filter would display. (So if the "Filter" number and the "Displayed" number don't match, just click the "Filter" button to make the tool display all effects for the current filter.)

You can at any time clear the filter to display all effects.

Note: The Check/Uncheck All buttons only apply to the visible (i.e. filtered) effects, so you can conveniently filter for "memories" and then deactivate all six memory effects at once by clicking the "Uncheck All" button.


Examples
Here are some examples of effects you might want to get rid off:
simcensorfx: nudity mosaic
ep1eyecandy: sparkles from the eye candy reward
ep4memorieshappyfx: sparkles for the memories (neutral and unhappy analogous)
memorieshappy: smiley for the memories (neutral and unhappy analogous)
ep7buffsparkly_main: vampire immortal lifetime reward sparks
Fairy wings: all 216 effects including the term "fairywings". Every wing form has a whole set of effects for both dark and bright colors.

How to find the right effect
It's often easy to tell what an effect does just from the name, but sometimes it's not clear. What you can do is try the effects out on the fog emitter. (See discussion here and elsewhere in the forums or read the following instructions.)



Tip: Right-click on an effect name to copy it to the clipboard. That makes it easy to paste it into the fog emitter dialog.

For your information: If you'd like to provide different ready-made flavors of effects mods made with this tool, please do so. It was the reason for making it.

Localization
Localization: The GUI of the tool is localizable. I've provided a German localization file. To use it, simply copy the content of "localization_de.txt" into "localization.txt" (or rename it). Other languages work analogously. You might need to expand the GUI if buttons or labels are suddenly missing (because they became too large).

For translators: Simply copy the localization_en.txt and change the name to fit your language code. Then make the translations. To test, copy the content of your file to "localization.txt".

Note: The effect names cannot be localized at this point. There are over 4,000 effects currently in the game! If someone seriously wants to translate them, let me know and I'll see about making them localizable. Effect names can now be localized. You must make sure the translations are unique.

Additional Credits:
Thanks so much to Peter Jones for s3pi and Atavera and ChaosMageX for the extra s3pi wrappers! (As per the S3PI license, this tool is also GPL 3.0 and the source code is attached.)