jgwhiteus & Inge Jones,

This just to say THANK YOU for this Ceiling Object. It is without doubt the best object in the history of The Sims2.

I'm glad you like it, micl2u

Inge, I think the red and yellow texture is the default "LIFO" texture of the airplane scultpure - I think it's appeared for me when I had an older and newer version of the tile in my download folder under different filenames? (as they both have the same GUID) If that's not the problem, I'll double check, but I usually didn't have a problem with the texture not appearing.

I like the idea of reducing the clickable area as much as possible. My only question is if the controller has to be beneath the tile in order to delete it individually, does that mean you have to continually switch between buy mode (to place it) and live mode (to use it)? I guess that might be an inconvenience, but since ceiling placement shouldn't be affected, only removal, and people probably use live mode the most, it's an okay trade-off.

Would it be possible to have options for how many tiles you'd like to remove? The difference between one tile and the whole room can be quite large. Maybe there could be an option to remove an individual tile, a 3 X 3 square of tiles around the controller, etc? If that's not possible, I guess a work-around technique that might be useful would be for people to create a temporary "room" of walls around the ceiling area they'd like to delete, place the controller inside, and then "delete all in room." These are just some initial ideas.

It's great that you've already been able to make improvements; thanks for all your help,

J.

Well, I wouldn't be expecting people to accidentally place that many stray tiles. Normally you'd only be deleting them because you were rebuilding or something in which case you delete in bulk. I was only thinking of a way round the "oh damn I let go too soon" when all the other tiles were in their right places fine.

Miche says there is a way to make the tiles completely non-selectable; it's not in the mesh importer, but that he'll do it for us if we like.

If they're not going to be completely non-selectable, I would prefer to have a visible bit where you can click on - maybe like a little white spot in the middle of each one - so you can easily avoid it when you don;t want it, and hit it when you do. I think that's better than guessing and clicking around. If we need to take screenshots without the dots in the way we can use the controller to hide them for that time.

Anyway, I will continue to add all the features to the controller, and in those circumstances I think it could be appropriate to take all the options off the ceiling tiles and have them running as passive decorative objects, regradless of whether or not it's finally decided to leave a selectable area.

Yeah, now that I think about it, there shouldn't be too many times when they'd need to remove an individual tile, so using the controller for individual tile removal would only have to happen in rare occasions - in build mode, if you misplace a tile, you can just hit "undo," and if you're re-modeling you can either just delete the entire room or use walls to create a special "room" for removal.

I think for now I'd like to retain the selectable area, but perhaps reduce it to a very, very small size in the center of the tile. That way, you could retain the option of either using the controller or directly grabbing the tile to remove it (and it's not always difficult to do so; using the top-down view you can more precisely guess where the center of the square would be, and even if you can't see the tile from above, if you would already have to know the location of the tile in order to place the controller, it's not much different from having to know the location of the tile in order to remove it from above). Although I like the idea of making the selectable area visible (for the top texture?), if you have a house full of these tiles you'll always have a view of lots of little dots when you're playing - if it were possible to make it so that the dots would only appear in top-down view, that would be ideal, but I think a plane texture of any size is going to appear in full 3D mode as well - I'll test it though with a very miniscule selectable area and see how often it appears.

One concern for both methods (direct removal and the controller object) is if there is an object directly underneath the tile already, such as a couch. If you need to place the controller there to remove the tile, you'd have to move the object, and if you wanted to remove the tile from the top-down view, there's be a good chance you'd select the couch instead of the tile - maybe you could make the controller a ceiling-level object so there'd be the least interference possible? (unless there's a lot of lights on the ceiling, in which case the player would just have to move them first). This would also make it easier to see which individual tile you're removing.

Removing the functions and having the tile be a passive object is definitely fine. Thanks,

J.

Is that necessarily much worse than having the ceiling lights showing? Given that the controller can make all the dots, and/or ceiling lights, disapear with two clicks when you don't want them?

I didn't even mind the appearance of the grid when you had that actually - but then there was still the problem of accidentally selecting the tile in the see-through bit, which is the only reason I worried about that. If the little bit you can see is the same spot as the little bit you can click, then that's a load more convenient than not being sure where you should or shouldn't click.

I would guess that people spend most of their time playing from a high view and only occasionally swooping down where they can see the ceiling, or the other way round. They probably would only feel the need to change between hidden and unhidden ceiling when they want to do a screenshot from an angle other than the one they usually play in.

Is it worth offering a test of both ways, or even making a pair each way? It wouldn't be a problem to edit the controller so it can deal with other GUIDs of ceiling tile.

By the way I am using the same "CD" I used for the ceiling light controller and am including light hiding on it. Is this a convenient object or would people prefer it to be a shrub or something?

Here are the two ceiling tiles, with the graphics exactly as J left them, but with the code tidied up so they no longer have any menu options - or anything at all in fact except init and main. I have changed the init since the last time I uploaded, and I have also taken out the intersection BHAV as I found it was not needed for these objects. (NB that also meant editing the Object Function table, and a menuless object should have -1 as the Table ID, rather than 0, so I changed that too.)

I have also uploaded the controller, which from now on can be improved and developed completely independently of the ceiling tiles themselves. Currently it only recognises the two existing tiles, the whole and half tiles, but it is a simple matter to add more GUIDs to the list in the "is it a ceiling tile?" BHAV if any new tiles are made. This at the very least leaves room for a completely backless pair of tiles and an alternative pair with small selection spots visible.

Let me know if you want anything else on the controller, and J, if you could let me know what to edit to make the controller appear in the same part of the catalogue as the ceiling tiles, I will do that and reupload. Currently it is with lighting.

You know, I completely forgot that you could just use the controller to make the view of the dots go away completely (for some reason I was thinking that they would be visible permanently), which is ironic since that was the original idea for the object. Sorry, as the object gets more developed my mind seems to be slipping

I'll make a different mesh with a miniscule clickable area that is visible from above, and use a different GUID. EDIT: I may not be able to release it for a day or two - it shouldn't take long, but I'm kinda swamped at the moment. In the meantime, I'll also try to test out the controller. Thanks,

J.

i'm mixed up
Which file to download all i want is a ceiling

The files in my previous message are the most up to date and will make you an excellent working ceiling, but just without dots showing you where to click them. That means sometimes you will click on a ceiling when you meant to click on a sim, and other times you might click on a sim when you meant to click on a ceiling. But they look fine and the controller works.

Which file do I download for the ceiling lights? Does it over write the 'original' file, which I have and love? Thanks for all the hard work on this project.

Cool !!!!!!

Hi tunride,

It shouldn't overwrite the ceiling light file, as I believe I used a different GUID for the object (since it had a different base - a sculpture as opposed to a lamp). However, you might want to back up that older file just to be sure.

I'll also be releasing a fixed version of that original file, because I believe I was a bit sloppy in the object creation so that re-colors would revert back to default, etc. when you saved. In the mean-time, this is a special "thin" version of that light, set at a slightly higher height than the ceiling tiles on this page - this will allow you to create "glow-in-the-dark" shapes on your ceilings.

The process is sorta complicated, but it basically involves making a re-color that changes the alpha channels (which portions appear) of the ceiling tile, then placing the lamp on the same tile in the game so that it shines through the "cut-outs":

1. (Optional) Recolor this thin ceiling lamp to be the color of your choice (neon red, blue, etc.). Default colors are off-white and phosphorescent green.

2. (Optional) Recolor the ceiling tile object (on this page, in Inge's post) to the desired color of your choice. This will be the "solid" portions of the ceiling.

3. Make ANOTHER recolor of the ceiling tile object and make special alpha channel "cutouts" that the lamp will shine through. In the Texture Window in SimPE's object workshop, first import the color of the re-color you just did in Step 2 (if you didn't re-color the tile, just leave it as default).

3a. Then right click on the texture (the largest size - 128 x 128) and choose "export alpha channel" and save that file to a directory - See Tutorial Picture 1.

3b. In a paint program, open the alpha channel file. You'll see a plain white square. Use black to draw the shapes you want to appear on the tile - this can be moons and stars, letters, symbols, etc. Save. - See Tutorial Picture 2.

3c. Back in SimPE, right-click on the texture again and this time choose "Import Alpha Channel." Select the file you just saved in step 3b. (Also note that by default, SimPE wants to open up .tif or .bmp files, but these files are usually in .png format. So if you don't see your file at first, check the "file type" in the open file window and make sure it's set to .png)
You should see your cut-out shapes in the new texture.

3d. Right-click on the texture again (with the cut-outs) and choose "Update All Sizes." Normally when doing re-colors of the ceiling object I don't like to use this feature, as it makes a thin "ring" appear on the tile vs. if you re-color each size individually, but it's unavoidable if you've made a cut-out (as it's difficult to re-create the special cut-out you've done on the different sizes). - See Tutorial Picture 3.
Click commit and save.

4. Put all re-color packages (the cut-out ceiling tile, and the re-colored lamp and ceiling tile if you've done them) in the download directory (as well as the objects themselves - the ceiling lamp and the ceiling tile).

5. In your game, the ceiling lamp will appear in your "Lighting-Ceiling" section, and the tiles will appear in your "Decorative-Miscellaneous" category. You won't be able to see a thumbnail image of your ceiling tile re-color, but if you've done the re-color correctly you should see more than one color option. Position your in-game camera so that it's on the ground level of the room and able to see the ceiling. - See Tutorial Picture 4.

6. Place your cut-out tile in the room for the portions that you want to be glow in the dark - you might have to click through the invisible re-color options until you find the right one (if you've done more than one re-color). For the rest of the tiles (the solid portions of the ceiling) use either the default color or your matching solid re-color, made in step 2.

7. Place the thin lamp on the same tile as the cut-out ceiling tile. These lamps are double-sided and have thumbnail images in the catalog, and the re-colors are easy to identify. However, this also means you will see the lamp on your ceilings unless you have the invisible light controller to conceal ceiling objects. - See Tutorial Picture 5.

If you want to test the glow-in-the-dark effect, switch to night view in buy mode (the little sun/moon icon) BEFORE you place the lamp. The lamp should turn on.

8. You should now have a "glow-in-the-dark" ceiling - though technically, it won't be very dark, as you're using lamps, which will flood the room with light But it's a temporary (if imperfect) way of getting this effect for now. You can try out different effects with re-colors - white glowing objects on dark ceilings, neon letters, mystic symbols, etc. Here's the file and a screenshot (you can see the "ring" effect you get with "Update All Sizes" that I described earlier - you might want to use a dark ceilng color to make this less noticeable).

J.

EDIT: Lamp file in this post removed; new version, updated for EP compliance, available on first page. From now on, newest complete versions of files will always appear on first post of first page.

A special thanks from me for this!
All my sims sends their love and kisses!!!
You are all so wonderfull!

Sorry I've been away for a while; I've had a busy week. On the first page of this thread, I've posted updates to the ceiling files and the thin ceiling lamp to make them compliant (hopefully) with the EP, using SimPE v.015. I've also made minor height adjustments to the mesh to make the tiles closer to ceiling level. These updates use the same GUID as the older files, so be sure to delete your older versions.

EDIT: "Visible dot" ceiling tiles, making the small clickable area visible from the top, are now available on the first post of the first page. Also, the ceiling controller has been updated so that these tiles can be concealed, mass deleted, etc. These have already been made EP compliant. Thanks; let me know if you have further suggestions,

J.

ah, thank you so much. I just downloaded it and can't wait to check it out. I've wanted this since I bought the game and wondered if it could be done. Enjoyed reading the development process and am greatfull for all the work put in to it!

if I have any comments/suggestions affter trying it I'll be sure to share.

thanks again,
-moon

So why didn't you update the controller like I explained to make them compatible with it?

Hi Inge,

Oops, sorry, I just re-read your earlier post about "just update the 'Is it a ceiling tile?' BHAV" - it didn't even occur to me at first to attempt to change the controller BHAV, as I've never dared fiddle with one before It took me a while to figure out how to do that, probably a lot longer than it should have (I didn't grasp the GUID format at first, or know how to add additional lines and change target values), but I think I've got the hang of it now - I've tested it with the "visible dot" tile GUID's, and it worked. I've posted the updated controller object on the first page, as well as the "visible dot" tiles that were in the post above.

I've also changed the categorization of the ceiling controller object; it now appears in the "Decorative-Miscellaneous" category along with the tiles (by changing "Function Sub-Sort" in Object Data to 128).

Do you know if there's a way to prevent double placement of the "visible dot" and transparent tiles in the same place, if a player has both versions in their download folder?

The next thing I'm trying to tackle is the thumbnail images, but so far none of the searches I've done of the forums has turned anything up Anyway, thanks for your help again,

J.

I think there is a way to stop any of them overlapping, but not the way I did it which was simply to set a flag to say "no duplicates on same tile". It means adding back the intersection test I took out. I'll try it out but do you mind waiting a few days cos I am in the middle of something else at the moment?

No problem at all - I totally understand about having other stuff to do You've already been more than helpful - it's amazing that the object's been able to develop so much in a little over a week.

I'll just try to tackle this thumbnail problem in the meantime. Cheers,

J.

What an amazing object(s). Like moonracer1313, I have found reading about the progression of this project very interesting. I am most excited about testing them later today. Thank you very much for creating such unique objects + sharing, and for making them expansion ready.

WOW!

Do I put all of these files into the downloads folder?

The Ceiling Tiles are wonderful. I just built a house I think is one of my best. It looks wonderful with the ceiling. You have done a wonderful job. Thank You , Thank You, I can't say it enough. Keep up the good work. This site has so many talented people, it just blows me away. Love it
Oh by the way could someone make window wall?

vcosley - thank you very much for the kind words. I'm glad you like the object

t0qt2bsngl - yes, they go in the Downloads folder. They appear in your game in the "Decorative - Miscellaneous" category (without a thumbnail, unfortunately).

UPDATE:
- Bad news first: I won't be able to resolve the invisible thumbnail issue for a while. After testing different meshes with different objects, I've concluded that the tiles are invisible in the catalog because...they are invisible from above in the game (this sounds very obvious, but I was hoping the game would search for a visible texture to display). Maybe I'll be able to fix this when we understand more about how thumbnails are generated.

- Good news: In the process of testing, I discovered that the lighting and shading effects for this new mesh didn't appear as strange as with the older double-sided mesh - the lighting is much more integrated and the tiles appear as a solid ceiling instead of a bunch of individually shaded tiles.

Therefore, I've posted an updated version of the tile on the first page. The main change is that lighting and shading have been re-enabled in the tiles so that they are affected by light sources (such as windows and lamps), versus the "flat" look they had earlier. I've updated both the "transparent" and "visible dot" versions.

Now, if you do re-colors of the tile in the hopes of matching a wall color, there's no need to "darken" the color to make it match - it will now naturally be shaded by the game. These tiles thus have a new default color of "Paste." The effect isn't perfect; the lighting and shading appear a bit more angular than the smoother lighting effects that appear with the walls and floors, and you'll sometimes make out the outline of an individual tile, but I think it's an improvement. You can see new screenshots on the first page (a copy of one's below - it uses Oberkorn's newly released "Holoprojector" Sunrise / Sunset object to change the color of the sky. Really, MTS2 is such a great site .

Hope people like the new "look" of the tiles; if you'd like to keep the old lighting scheme (where the tiles were a flat color), you can keep the older file, since not much changes with this update, or disable the effects in future updates by opening the file in SimPE, going to "Material Definitions," and setting stdMatLightingEnabled and stdMatMinLightRangeHint to 0. Thanks,

J.

I've just had a thought... do you think these ceilings would keep out the rain? Maybe it was only coming in during the tests because there were no ceilings?

using roofs, there WERE ceilings