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Apocalyptic Effects, Trashamatic Recolours & Decorative Junk

by Sophie-David Posted 31st Aug 2011 at 6:17 PM - Updated 5th Apr 2016 at 11:37 PM by Sophie-David : Posted the View Many bugfix.
 
66 Comments / Replies (Who?) - 24 Feedback Posts, 41 Thanks Posts
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Lab Assistant
THANKS POST
#2 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 7:02 PM
Very nice!
Thank you so much!
Forum Resident
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#3 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 7:24 PM
*Apocalyptic sensory overload* All of these goodies at MTS are going to make playing the AC even more fun. This junk looks great!
Mad Poster
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#4 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 8:31 PM
Great stuff! I can now make an open-pit dump, with fires! Thanks!
Theorist
Original Poster
#5 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 8:56 PM
Thank you for the warm encouragement!

Quote: Originally posted by lorinsv60
*Apocalyptic sensory overload* All of these goodies at MTS are going to make playing the AC even more fun. This junk looks great!
Yes, I really enjoyed making the screenshots last night.


Quote: Originally posted by FranH
Great stuff! I can now make an open-pit dump, with fires! Thanks!
Don't forget the flies and stink!
Test Subject
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#6 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 10:26 PM
Yeah!!! Thank you, that's great! ;D
Not actually evil.
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#7 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 11:14 PM
I appreciate that thought went not only into appearance, but into game behavior, as with all your stuff.
Inventor
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#8 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 2:55 AM
This is amazing! Well done!
Theorist
Original Poster
#9 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 6:45 AM
Minor Update, Late evening of August 31, 2011
Minor Update, late August 31: the smaller Decorative Junk is now placeable in decorative slots - redownload sdDecoJunkBG.zip for this update
Theorist
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Original Poster
#10 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 6:47 AM
I appreciate the encouragement, Kikinne, Cat, and Saturnfly.
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 10:53 AM
Fantastic!!
Wow! cool beans! These will be so much fun in my game. Thanks and Hugs!
Inventor
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#12 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 2:58 PM
Awesome idea!!
RETROTROUT
#13 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 4:33 PM
Love these downloads :D


Retrotrut Is On Zee Track
Field Researcher
THANKS POST
#14 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 5:22 PM
I shall have to go and play with these for a while, but if they turn out to be half as useful as I think they will, then they're going to be, well...very useful indeed! Thank you!
Lab Assistant
THANKS POST
#15 Old 1st Sep 2011 at 7:45 PM
Very very awesome!
Theorist
Original Poster
#16 Old 2nd Sep 2011 at 3:49 AM
Thanks for encouragement folks. Good to see you over here Nonni.

Quote: Originally posted by goodandgone
I shall have to go and play with these for a while, but if they turn out to be half as useful as I think they will, then they're going to be, well...very useful indeed! Thank you!
I hope they work out for you goodandgone. My only caution is that too many effects at once, or effects in a complex or large lot, can cause game slowdowns. I did have all 45 running at once for the demo ("Welcome to Hell") picture without any noticeable performance hit, but then again I was using an empty lot.
*shrugs*
retired moderator
#17 Old 2nd Sep 2011 at 6:48 AM
Very nice! I don't recall seeing moths in the game. Was that an unused (and thus "hidden") effect or does it show up naturally?

I've been working on my own effects project (different effects, not the ones here ) which is very similar in number. I was inclined to make a "super", "all-in-one" object which used an attribute to control what effect was played rather than registering so many GUIDs. But if it is not too painful to register that many new GUIDs, I suppose that is the better route. Have any horror stories or cautionary tales of woe that would further convince me or urge me to change my attribute-dependent ways?

I don't mind if you call me "MSD" or something for short.
Tumblr
Perhaps someday I'll have leisure time back...
Test Subject
THANKS POST
#18 Old 2nd Sep 2011 at 9:32 AM
Its really good, i know ill use this stuff you should make more Apocalyptic things!
Theorist
Original Poster
#19 Old 2nd Sep 2011 at 7:46 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maybesomethingdunno
Very nice! I don't recall seeing moths in the game. Was that an unused (and thus "hidden") effect or does it show up naturally?
EA calls the moths "butterflies", and they typically hang out with the bees at flower gardens. But unlike moths, butterflies usually have balls at the end of their antennas, whereas these game "butterflies" do not. And frankly, the word "butterfly" makes for an overly long internal and external filename. Moths are a bit more apocalyptic too.

Quote: Originally posted by maybesomethingdunno
I've been working on my own effects project (different effects, not the ones here ) which is very similar in number. I was inclined to make a "super", "all-in-one" object which used an attribute to control what effect was played rather than registering so many GUIDs. But if it is not too painful to register that many new GUIDs, I suppose that is the better route. Have any horror stories or cautionary tales of woe that would further convince me or urge me to change my attribute-dependent ways?
Yes, I did consider combining the effects and/or having a master controller for them. I would see the advantages of doing so as the following:

1) It would be easy to have menu control to turn them all on and off, whereas menu control for each separate object is problematic because it can become very cumbersome and intrusive to gameplay having menus popping up all over the place. I like the idea of an effect just doing its own thing and becoming part of the scenery rather than being interactive.

2) Having one object would indeed save on GUIDs. I'm generally pretty conservative with GUIDs, so I wasn't too worried about splurging in this case.

3) If a player actually wanted all the effects available in the game at once, then having them all in one package would save space and therefore improve game performance.

The reasons I chose to go with individually packaged effects were as follows:

1) I wanted the effects to autorun when entering a community lot. I dislike the idea of fussing with turning something off or on when entering a community lot during gameplay. Because there is no convenient way to save an attribute in community use, it would be awkward to accomplish a "one controller object does all" approach in this case.

2) I wanted to keep the effects system simple and easy to use.

3) I like the idea of players only choosing the effects they want to use. Its nice to have variety, but one would rarely need to have 13 different fires all loaded and available at once, for example. In this way a player can just select her or his favourites.

4) Because I'm married to and adore StephSim, I'm very focused in providing what lot designers need for their work. Especially for medieval creation which unavoidably requires lots of custom content, every kByte counts. By having each effect as a discrete object, lot creators do not have to be burdened by an unnecessarily large package. Two or three effects to give the lot a bit of glitz are typically all that is required.

5) Its easy to add more effects to the project later, without needing to retrofit them to a previously distributed controller.

6) I also like the idea that creators can use the effects to prototype their own objects - decide what effect they want to build into their package, and then simply extract the code they need from the appropriate effects object.
Theorist
Original Poster
#20 Old 2nd Sep 2011 at 7:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Fredz
Its really good, i know ill use this stuff you should make more Apocalyptic things!
Thank you Fredz. My interest is really in the medieval era - but there is a surprisingly degree of commonality between the medieval and the apocalyptic, particularly where this project is concerned. If you or I actually had to live in the medieval period, I suspect we would find it quite an apocalytpic experience!
Instructor
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#21 Old 4th Sep 2011 at 3:32 AM
Great work! I also like your title.
Theorist
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Original Poster
#22 Old 4th Sep 2011 at 3:52 AM
Thank you slar.
*shrugs*
retired moderator THANKS POST
#23 Old 5th Sep 2011 at 3:31 AM
Thanks for the response. Those are some good points.
Test Subject
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#24 Old 11th Sep 2011 at 12:37 PM
Thanks ^__^
Theorist
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Original Poster
#25 Old 11th Sep 2011 at 4:54 PM
Thank you for the encouragement.
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