State of the Hat and a Mini Tutorial
Jun. 27th, 2011 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hat_plays_simsTrying to get myself back into Sims by messing around on the play end of things-- catching up on downloads, sorting things to my finicky liking (I actually kind of enjoy that), testing new stuff, updating to-do lists, lurking and trying to get caught up with assorted boards as a reader before I start posting again-- and I discovered a piece of information that revolutionized my Buy and Build catalogs, and I felt a need to share.
So, have a mini-tutorial!
If you have Apartment Life, Mansion & Garden, Sims 2 Store Edition, or any of the recent bundle packs (Fun with Pets, Best of Business, and I think University Life), you have a category called Architectural in your Build mode. Of course that would be the best place to sort things like decorative columns and ruins and beams and basically all that stuff that makes your houses look awesome but doesn't actually do anything... but SimPE has no ticky-box based way to get anything into that category.
But it DOES have a way to get things in there. And it's super simple!
You need to be on the Apartment Life game engine to do this. You need AL, M&G, Store Edition, or one of the above mentioned bundle packs. Otherwise I don't know if this will crash your game, but you won't be able to find your objects.
Look at Object Data for the doodad you'd like to move (I suggest starting with Kativip's Legend Series Breath of Time and City collections). You'll see the usual handy-dandy tickyboxes under Catalog Sort-- untick all of them, as though you were making a hider, then hit commit. (If you WERE making a hider, you'd just save here. That's how easy hiders are to make.) Then click the Raw Data tab right next to where it says Catalog Sort. Over on the right, you should have three radio buttons (ticky boxes are square and let you click many; radio buttons are round and let you click one) offering you a choice between Binary, Decimal, and Hexadecimal. Tick Decimal.
Now actually look at the Raw Data. You've got your OBJd file stuff, I don't know what that does. You've got your Catalog Price stuff, and if you want to fiddle with that, feel free. Heaven knows a surprising number of creators price their lavish sofas at $0 or their single palm frond in a white plastic vase for $3000.
But the important bit is the third section-- Catalog Sorting. Most of that, I don't know what it does. I know the Room Sort and Function Sort flags should be a string of zeroes if you un-ticked your ticky boxes. There are only three values you want to fiddle with:
0x0045: Build Mode Type
0x004A: Build Mode Subsort
0x005E: Function Sub-Sort
These all have numbers you can edit. The numbers may vary, but it doesn't matter. You'll be changing things. You want it to look like this:
0x0045: Build Mode Type = 1
0x004A: Build Mode Subsort = 4096
0x005E: Function Sub-Sort = 1
Hit Commit. Hit Save. Lather, rinse, and repeat for every architectural gizmo you want to get out of your Deco Sculptures or Deco Misc category. I just moved all my columns, ruins, custom fireplaces, deco chimneys, decorative balconies, thatched roofs, gypsy wagon roofs and wheels, beams, roof spires, and other such doodads, and now my Deco Misc category... well, it's still got a lot in it, but the slider is no longer a tiny, tiny dot.
Like the other two things I do to keep my Deco Misc category under control, this totally isn't something I'd even hope for any creators to do to their own content-- for one thing, it requires specific expansions-- but if you ever find yourself wishing this architectural stuff were in the architectural section in Build Mode, well! Now you know how to do it.
I re-categorize pretty much everything I download. And then sometimes I go and re-re-categorize it. My general overall rule for the Decorative section is that only mirrors, the zen garden, and Green Energy Sources (although I may move those) are allowed to do anything. Deco objects should be like the goggles; they do nothing. Other things I do to my poor beleaguered catalog include:
Deco Sculptures: Only deliberate objets d'art are sculptures. Statues, figurines, urns, some dishes, pitchers, or plates. Currently also home to all graveyard goods, corpses, or skeletons. Why? I do not know. (I'm considering moving the tombstones etc to Architectural.)
Deco Misc: Non-functional clutter that looks functional goes here, with very few exceptions. Also, rocks. (Some rocks still live in Build, but Deco Misc has some stubborn Maxis rocks that won't be hidden.)
Appliances Misc: Now that my custom fireplaces are tucked neatly away in Architectural, all my deco and buyable edible food goes here, even the things that are technically wall-hangings.
Hobbies Knowledge: Deco books go here. Also deco telescopes, deco scrolls, deco inkwells. Library or astronomy deco. (Because the actual bookshelves do stand out.) Empty, slotted bookshelves that function as bookshelves go here, too.
Hobbies Creative: Deco musical instruments. I've only got one item over one page.
Hobbies Misc: It's not really logical, but all poseboxes go here, so I can find the mofos.
Plumbing Misc: Taking a page from Parsimonious's handbook, this is where potions and perfumes live regardless of where I downloaded them. I may eventually change that (to what, I do not know. I'd add a section to my catalog for potions if I knew how) and put fountains there instead. Also home to Black Spirit and Numenor's extracted Wishing Well, because it does something (and deco wells, because it made sense to keep the wells together).
Lighting Misc: All candles that were categorized as decorative, functional or not, go here. Because they're CANDLES, and candles are LIGHTING.
General Pets: Anything of or pertaining to animals, barnyards, zookeeping, aquariums, et cetera. (Live-looking animals go here. Dead-looking animals go in Appliance Misc, also known as Foodstuffs, unless they are pet toys.)
General Misc: As well as the usable objects that don't really fit anywhere else, this is where the object mods go. Chris Hatch's religion fairy, Inge Jones's non-shrub controllers.
Seating Misc: I have two deco tents; they go here instead of in Decorative. Also, some creators seem to have trouble figuring out that a stone bench is not a sofa, so those live here. (And sometimes, upholstered sofas get moved from here to Seating Sofas. They work the same, it's just a matter of wanting to find it where I'd expect it to be.)
There's stuff I could shift around that I don't. Decorative toys stay in Deco Misc because my General Kids section is pretty full of potties and cribs and danglemonsters-- not that I download a lot of decorative toys, because 'decorative' misses the point of 'toys' completely. Birthday cakes, wedding cakes, and champagne stay in General Party because they're party stuff, despite also being food.
My next goal, when I get my catalog all fixed properly (and maybe try to winnow my downloads folder back under seven gigs) will be to catch up on comments. I just felt that a mini-tutorial on how to get things into Build Architecture was in order.
There will be a hider coming for the Build Architecture section, and possibly all of Build Mode. And eventually I'm going to release a Director's Cut of hiders, but it probably won't be of much interest to anyone who doesn't play Medieval/Fantasy/Period themes (because as a Director's Cut, it will be the hiders I use personally).
(Things in progress at this very moment: Have tested text and image replacements for my first Medieval default career (athletic as Knighthood, which will probably need variations (egalitarian (male and female chance cards identical) vs sexist (every time a female knight loses her job, it's because she got outed pulling an Eowyn/Fa Mulan/Sweet Polly Oliver) and some title variations). Going well! Need to do a little research about which careers use the helicopter at the higher levels and figure out which car to replace them with and how. Also suspect that one can use the same method to use the Captain-Hero-Flying-Carpool for any level of a given career. Have updated Hair List with more hairs I want to do. Got a couple more to add to said list, actually, but I have to find where I wrote them down. Installed SC4 on the laptop (because the laptop won't handle Sims 2 and needs moar games) in order to build own kingdom terrains. I want to use adjacent SC4 terrains for noble estates, so I tested how many OFB shopping districts you can add to a neighborhood. I got tired of testing when I hit seventy-four, not counting the one Downtown and three Vacation 'hoods I added first, to make sure I wouldn't hit some invisible limit.)
So, have a mini-tutorial!
If you have Apartment Life, Mansion & Garden, Sims 2 Store Edition, or any of the recent bundle packs (Fun with Pets, Best of Business, and I think University Life), you have a category called Architectural in your Build mode. Of course that would be the best place to sort things like decorative columns and ruins and beams and basically all that stuff that makes your houses look awesome but doesn't actually do anything... but SimPE has no ticky-box based way to get anything into that category.
But it DOES have a way to get things in there. And it's super simple!
You need to be on the Apartment Life game engine to do this. You need AL, M&G, Store Edition, or one of the above mentioned bundle packs. Otherwise I don't know if this will crash your game, but you won't be able to find your objects.
Look at Object Data for the doodad you'd like to move (I suggest starting with Kativip's Legend Series Breath of Time and City collections). You'll see the usual handy-dandy tickyboxes under Catalog Sort-- untick all of them, as though you were making a hider, then hit commit. (If you WERE making a hider, you'd just save here. That's how easy hiders are to make.) Then click the Raw Data tab right next to where it says Catalog Sort. Over on the right, you should have three radio buttons (ticky boxes are square and let you click many; radio buttons are round and let you click one) offering you a choice between Binary, Decimal, and Hexadecimal. Tick Decimal.
Now actually look at the Raw Data. You've got your OBJd file stuff, I don't know what that does. You've got your Catalog Price stuff, and if you want to fiddle with that, feel free. Heaven knows a surprising number of creators price their lavish sofas at $0 or their single palm frond in a white plastic vase for $3000.
But the important bit is the third section-- Catalog Sorting. Most of that, I don't know what it does. I know the Room Sort and Function Sort flags should be a string of zeroes if you un-ticked your ticky boxes. There are only three values you want to fiddle with:
0x0045: Build Mode Type
0x004A: Build Mode Subsort
0x005E: Function Sub-Sort
These all have numbers you can edit. The numbers may vary, but it doesn't matter. You'll be changing things. You want it to look like this:
0x0045: Build Mode Type = 1
0x004A: Build Mode Subsort = 4096
0x005E: Function Sub-Sort = 1
Hit Commit. Hit Save. Lather, rinse, and repeat for every architectural gizmo you want to get out of your Deco Sculptures or Deco Misc category. I just moved all my columns, ruins, custom fireplaces, deco chimneys, decorative balconies, thatched roofs, gypsy wagon roofs and wheels, beams, roof spires, and other such doodads, and now my Deco Misc category... well, it's still got a lot in it, but the slider is no longer a tiny, tiny dot.
Like the other two things I do to keep my Deco Misc category under control, this totally isn't something I'd even hope for any creators to do to their own content-- for one thing, it requires specific expansions-- but if you ever find yourself wishing this architectural stuff were in the architectural section in Build Mode, well! Now you know how to do it.
I re-categorize pretty much everything I download. And then sometimes I go and re-re-categorize it. My general overall rule for the Decorative section is that only mirrors, the zen garden, and Green Energy Sources (although I may move those) are allowed to do anything. Deco objects should be like the goggles; they do nothing. Other things I do to my poor beleaguered catalog include:
Deco Sculptures: Only deliberate objets d'art are sculptures. Statues, figurines, urns, some dishes, pitchers, or plates. Currently also home to all graveyard goods, corpses, or skeletons. Why? I do not know. (I'm considering moving the tombstones etc to Architectural.)
Deco Misc: Non-functional clutter that looks functional goes here, with very few exceptions. Also, rocks. (Some rocks still live in Build, but Deco Misc has some stubborn Maxis rocks that won't be hidden.)
Appliances Misc: Now that my custom fireplaces are tucked neatly away in Architectural, all my deco and buyable edible food goes here, even the things that are technically wall-hangings.
Hobbies Knowledge: Deco books go here. Also deco telescopes, deco scrolls, deco inkwells. Library or astronomy deco. (Because the actual bookshelves do stand out.) Empty, slotted bookshelves that function as bookshelves go here, too.
Hobbies Creative: Deco musical instruments. I've only got one item over one page.
Hobbies Misc: It's not really logical, but all poseboxes go here, so I can find the mofos.
Plumbing Misc: Taking a page from Parsimonious's handbook, this is where potions and perfumes live regardless of where I downloaded them. I may eventually change that (to what, I do not know. I'd add a section to my catalog for potions if I knew how) and put fountains there instead. Also home to Black Spirit and Numenor's extracted Wishing Well, because it does something (and deco wells, because it made sense to keep the wells together).
Lighting Misc: All candles that were categorized as decorative, functional or not, go here. Because they're CANDLES, and candles are LIGHTING.
General Pets: Anything of or pertaining to animals, barnyards, zookeeping, aquariums, et cetera. (Live-looking animals go here. Dead-looking animals go in Appliance Misc, also known as Foodstuffs, unless they are pet toys.)
General Misc: As well as the usable objects that don't really fit anywhere else, this is where the object mods go. Chris Hatch's religion fairy, Inge Jones's non-shrub controllers.
Seating Misc: I have two deco tents; they go here instead of in Decorative. Also, some creators seem to have trouble figuring out that a stone bench is not a sofa, so those live here. (And sometimes, upholstered sofas get moved from here to Seating Sofas. They work the same, it's just a matter of wanting to find it where I'd expect it to be.)
There's stuff I could shift around that I don't. Decorative toys stay in Deco Misc because my General Kids section is pretty full of potties and cribs and danglemonsters-- not that I download a lot of decorative toys, because 'decorative' misses the point of 'toys' completely. Birthday cakes, wedding cakes, and champagne stay in General Party because they're party stuff, despite also being food.
My next goal, when I get my catalog all fixed properly (and maybe try to winnow my downloads folder back under seven gigs) will be to catch up on comments. I just felt that a mini-tutorial on how to get things into Build Architecture was in order.
There will be a hider coming for the Build Architecture section, and possibly all of Build Mode. And eventually I'm going to release a Director's Cut of hiders, but it probably won't be of much interest to anyone who doesn't play Medieval/Fantasy/Period themes (because as a Director's Cut, it will be the hiders I use personally).
(Things in progress at this very moment: Have tested text and image replacements for my first Medieval default career (athletic as Knighthood, which will probably need variations (egalitarian (male and female chance cards identical) vs sexist (every time a female knight loses her job, it's because she got outed pulling an Eowyn/Fa Mulan/Sweet Polly Oliver) and some title variations). Going well! Need to do a little research about which careers use the helicopter at the higher levels and figure out which car to replace them with and how. Also suspect that one can use the same method to use the Captain-Hero-Flying-Carpool for any level of a given career. Have updated Hair List with more hairs I want to do. Got a couple more to add to said list, actually, but I have to find where I wrote them down. Installed SC4 on the laptop (because the laptop won't handle Sims 2 and needs moar games) in order to build own kingdom terrains. I want to use adjacent SC4 terrains for noble estates, so I tested how many OFB shopping districts you can add to a neighborhood. I got tired of testing when I hit seventy-four, not counting the one Downtown and three Vacation 'hoods I added first, to make sure I wouldn't hit some invisible limit.)
Re: Helicopter Carpols
Date: 2011-07-02 08:31 am (UTC)But thank you so much, that makes things much easier!
Re: Helicopter Carpols
Date: 2011-07-02 12:16 pm (UTC)Bethgael