I didn't explain the procedure of adding the block since I assumed that the majority of objects (while having the CEP installed) would have it already. There are probably some that still don't, though. You can add it by 1) opening the Geometric Node 2) Clicking on Edit Blocks 3) selecting cDataListExtension from the dropdown list and clicking Add (and committing) 4) going back to the Content tab and selecting the newly added block from the Blocklist 5) typing tsDesignModeEnabled into the Name field (and committing) 6) then selecting the very first entry on the Blocklist and going to the cObjectGraphNode tab 7) clicking Add 8) clicking on the newly added line in the Datalist Extension Reference list and the changing the last zero of Index to what comes next (if you have 5 lines before, you type 6 (0x00000006) and change the last zero of Enabled 0x01 (and clicking Commit, and save the package). And you're done .

(I'm surprised to see that you've not won an award for replying so fastly yet :D)

I followed your instructions but there was no lines in the "items" field. I suppose I should've add them but I didn't want to lose too much time (I'm not very brave *lol*) so I decided to clone another plant.

I followed the tut twice with that plant but the new subset is still not showing up in the game and I don't know what's wrong...

File&picture *link removed* - thanks in advance if you can find the problem.

The problem seems to have something to do with your texture for the glass. Maybe it's too transparent or something, because when I import a solid black texture as a test, the subset shows in game just fine.

Yes, when you add a new tsDesignModeEnabled block, you add a new entry into the Items list the same way you add a second in the tutorial.

You're right, the texture was too transparent ! It's odd as I used the same one for other objects that show up fine.

Thanks for having run your game to make the test

Thanks for the tutorial, Bliss. It is great, really useful and easy to follow...
and now the problem

I cloned a staircase and I created a new subset so that I can make separate recolors of the stairs and the railings. Until here everything worked fine.
The railings have a glass and a metal part and I made the metal part as a slave subset of the glass one (or at least I thought to) so that I could recolour both parts together, but when I create the recolor package, the TXMT of the metal part is not present.
Btw, there aren't any textures for the railing, since they aren't needed, and the slave texture of the stairs for the neighborhood view is correctly pulled.

Can anybody help me understanding what I'm doing wrong?

Spaik, the stairs are weird objects that are not correctly managed by SimPE.
As you could see, the mesh is split into numerous subsets (railingglass1, railingglass2, etc), but it's just one of the Maxis' oddities...
I've cleaned up the mesh: all the metal parts are now named "railingmetal", and all the glass parts are "railingglass". I've fixed accordingly the GMND and the SHPE and deleted all the things that were useless (including the neighborhood textures: they are useless since SimPE didn't include in the clone the neighborhood mesh, too...).

Now the stairs work fine: the metal is slave to the glass and the recolour packages correctly contain all the needed files.
Please notice that both the metal and the glass are textureless, i.e. can be recoloured only by changing the "stdMatDiffCoeff" parameters within the TXMT).

This is the test recolour I've created:


I take the chance to reveal a little hint:
if in the GMDC there are several mesh groups with the same name, they will be treated by the game as one. In this case, in fact, there are several "railingglass" meshes, that are treated as a single big subset named "railingglass" (they will use the same TXMT and MMAT); same for the "railingmetal".

I'm attaching a zip containing the fixed staircase and the test recolour shown in picture, so to let you examine it: you will notice that the "steps" have a texture (recoloured), and the reailingglass/railingmetal have only a TXMT, where the stdMatDiffCoeff has been altered.

Thanks Numenor for your help.
I'm learning a lot from your package, since I'm usually afraid of deleting things, if I don't know exactly what they are for (and this apply to most of them ).
My intention was to change the railing aspect via TXMT (to match the Invisibarrier fences) and to link the steps to the original Maxis ones, so that the final package doesn't have any TXTR at all. This is not a problem, I've already tried it, but left as a final step.

My problem now is that the railings aren't removable anymore with the railing tool.
This is a feature of all the Maxis stairs, but I don't know how it is managed. I've cloned other staircases, and only this one (Stairway to Eleven) has a BHAV file called CT - Toggle Railings. I don't know if it's because of the glass part, or if the other staircases borrow the BHAV from this one.
I've tried to make another staircase with separate recolourable railings and it works fine, but they (only the railings) revert to an odd colour whenever I touch them with the Railing tool.

I've tried to modify your package to save both features (si direbbe salvare capra e cavoli), but it seams that when I re-add the "null" TXMT, SimPE refuses to pull in the recolours the TXMT for the metal part. I've assumed that the "null" TXMT is used when the railings are removed, but I'm not sure at all.

Ooops, I didn't know of this special feature of the "Stairway to 11", and I overlooked the CT bhav... Let me check it...

The railings can be removed from every Maxis staircase, non only the "11", even if the BHAV is not present in the others (and I too discovered this feature not long ago; I previously thought that only modular stairs had removable railings).

Spaik, I'm having big troubles with keeping the "railing on/off" feature and making them recolourable. The stairs are a nightmare -
In all the other stairs, the railings are turned on and off by switching the mesh (just like in the modular stairs), but this particular staircase has only one mesh, and the railings are made invisible by applying an invisible texture over them. This causes problems with the recolours, and probably explains why Maxis didn't make the railings recolourable...

A solution might be to make the railings "always on", and create an "invisible" recolour for them; if the user doesn't want the railings, he will apply the invisible recolour to them. The only limitation is that you can't have only one railing: with this method, you can have both railings or no railings.

Thanks again, Numenor. I've tried in many different ways and came up to nothing, but at first I thought it was just my fault and my ignorance.
Now I know that it's Maxis fault!
So I shall live with it and choose which feature I want and which I can do without.

Thanks again to Bliss too. Your tutorial is really useful, and in many ways.

hello im from sims2carsource and im making a new car and i hav used your tut. for many things other than cars. you may hav answered this befor and i tried to look through as many posts as posible. but when i recolor my car the name of the subst shows up but not the thumbnail and when i click on OK it only shows the TXTR, MMAT, and the TXMT of the other subset.

Can you attach your package to take a look at?

ok sure but it is a top secret car so im changing the name of the .rar and please dont tell anyone about it. also in the game the roof subset is blue ans flashing and it acted like it is unjointed but in milkshape it is jointed.

The TXMT reference in your MMAT didn't match the actual name of the TXMT for the roof subset. I fixed that (changed the TXMT name), and now it seems to be working. As for the problem with the unjointed part, I'm not sure, I'm not terribly familiar with car meshing in particular.

ooo thanx so much while you were looking i went back and redid it a little so i wont need to map the roof seperatly...lol so if i still cant figure out the joint thing it should work with this one.

Whenever the material for a subset can't be found (i.e. the subset flashes blue), the joints are just ignored: the mesh seems unjointed, but it's not; it's just a side effect of the missing material.
With the material reference fixed by IgnorantBliss, also the joints should work fine.

im trying to get some kinda glass texture, but i can't find any. How am i supposed to make it look like see threw glass if i cant even find texture? or is there another way?

Most glass in the game doesn't have a texture image, only a material definition, which determines its transparency, color, and so on. You could clone an existing object that has a glass subset and take a look at the material definition of that.

ok, well i need help. The tut isn't easy to follow for me. Im making a wooden table with a glass middle, and i don't know how to do everything, the tut you made is kinda hard to me. Any suggestions?

What kind of a table is it? There are many tables in the game already that have a glass subset, and if you clone one of those, you won't even need to add a new subset.

which ones have glass subset? can you describe them or give me the name of them?

Unless I have missed some, the tables with glass parts are:

Coffee tables: ArtNouveau, Quaint and Designer
Dining table: Long Victorian and Loft
End tables: Loft

I have given the "Object Data" name, because the descriptive name changes regarding the language of your game.

oh, ok. So if i just made a cube, could i make it into a glass cube? if so how? i was trying to follow her tut but it just doesnt make since to me

AuraDemolisher, this tutorial is written for creators who are moderately experienced in object creation already. It may be that you need a little more practice, and maybe some beginner tutorials to learn the basics first. If you want me to help you with the tutorial, you need to be a lot more specific about what exactly doesn't make sense to you, otherwise it's very difficult to help.

Yes, you can make the glass subset into a cube, just like you can a solid object, it's the exact same thing in that regard.