Happy new year! This is an experimental mod I made with the help of ammar2, who did some amazing work decoding the effects.package file (https://gist.github.com/ammaraskar/...11be62999854194). As far as I can tell, the addition of new effects to the game is somewhat of a new modding style, so I'm adding a tutorial on how I made this mod so others can make more like this and do some even more amazing things with the work Ammar did.
This item is a new neighborhood effect that works the same way as the basegame farm fields and flowers, which gives a localized heavy snow look that wraps to the neighborhood terrain and can layer with other terrain covers.
Install instructions:
There are two files included in the archive:
nhoodsnow.package goes in the downloads folder and contains the actual neighborhood deco object and the texture for the new effect.
main.fx goes in a folder called "Plugins" in your install location (for UC that is C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin). If there isn't a folder called Plugins you will need to create one there.
Creating new effects and adding them to items (guide):
Disclaimer: This guide does not cover the creation of meshes and custom textures. Additionally, some basic familiarity with SimPE is required.
If this is the first mod you are creating or downloading of this type, you will first need to go to the TSBin folder in the game's install location and create a subfolder called "Plugins". Now, create a text file called main.fx and save it somewhere on your computer.
If you already have a Plugins folder and a main.fx, copy that file somewhere else on your computer to edit it. All custom effects and default replacements for effects should be written in ONE main.fx file.
Open main.fx with a text/code editor of your choice. To create a new effect, you will need to follow this basic format:
for example, terrain covers like farm fields use this format:
Code:
decal neighborhood_farmfields03
texture "neighborhood-decals-farmfield03"
life 20
alpha 0.8
size 90
end
effect neighborhood_farmfields1
decalEffect neighborhood_farmfields03
end
and particle emissions (such as smoke) would look something like this:
Code:
particles test
life 5
rate 30
source -point
emit -dir (0, 0, 1) 1 -speed 5
texture "effects-puff"
color (0.0, 1.0, 0.0) (1.0, 0.0, 0.0)
end
effect neighborhood_house_smoking
particleEffect test
end
The research on these effects was carried out by Ammar and published on github (link in introduction). I highly recommend reading his findings on this subject which covers all the types of properties these effects can have. My understanding is that a lot of different types of new effects can be created by playing with the different properties.
If you would like to use a custom texture in an effect, the texture must be in the group 0x1C0532FA, which is where all of the Maxis textures are stored. Do not include the _txtr part of the name when you are adding it to an effect.
When you are done editing main.fx, copy and paste it to the Plugins folder and your effect is now part of the game. But it's not going to do much good if it isn't linked to an item, so here is where step 2 comes in.
Step 2: Creating an object with the effect
This process was originally described in a thread on MTS which is now down, but can still be found on Internet Archive. This guide covers the addition of effects to build/buy objects on lots. I wont repeat everything that this thread described, but I will make a couple notes on where the process differs for neighborhood items. https://web.archive.org/web/2018021...ad.php?t=145518
To clone neighborhood deco, you need to open SimPE in advanced mode (this setting is part of the extra\preferences menu). Next, open object workshop and clone an item from the neighborhood catalog that has an effect attached (some examples are the farm fields, crashed UFO, rainbow, and lighthouse)
You can make any changes you like to the Neighborhood Object XML and other files, but the main one we are concerned with for this guide is the Resource node (CRES). Open the file in the plugin view and look at the "Content" tab, which is the default one that opens when you first look at the CRES.
The item you cloned should already have an effect block in the hierarchy, so to change it, use the drop down button on the blocklist and select "0x1: EffectsList (cDataListExtension)". Now, the "Items" box in the plugin view should be showing you a line that looks something like:
Code:
eff_slot = (String) neighborhood_effname
Where I've written "eff", this is a placeholder for the name of your effect. The slot file name doesn't need to match exactly the name of your effect, but it is helpful to make the name similar to your effect to identify it more easily later on. The "neighborhood_effname" needs to match your effect name from Step 1. As an example, here is this line from my permafrost file:
Code:
frost_slot = (String) neighborhood_permafrost
Next, open the dropdown list again and open the item that has the word "slot" in the name. This item will originally open on a set of location parameters in a tab called "cTransformNode" (modifying these is optional). Switch the tab to "cObjectGraphNode", where you will now see just two inputs with one being the slot name. Rename this file to match the "eff_slot" name you assigned earlier.
Commit the changes to the CRES file, and make any other changes you would like to the file, and that should do it!
1. Download: Click the download link to save the .rar or .zip file(s) to your computer.
2. Extract the zip, rar, or 7z file.
3. nhoodsnow.package goes in the downloads folder main.fx goes in a folder called "Plugins" in your install location (for UC that is C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin). If there isn't a folder called Plugins you will need to create one there.
For a detailed look at individual files, see the Information tab.
Install Instructions
Basic Download and Install Instructions:
1. Download: Click the download link to save the .rar or .zip file(s) to your computer.
2. Extract the zip, rar, or 7z file.
3. nhoodsnow.package goes in the downloads folder main.fx goes in a folder called "Plugins" in your install location (for UC that is C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin). If there isn't a folder called Plugins you will need to create one there.
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Neighborhood "Permafrost" Decoration
Neighborhood "Permafrost" Decoration
