FFS Lot Debugger is mutated into the small glass vase - DIY package

[Lord Darcy]

I turned FFS Lot Debugger into "Frost de Fleur Bud Vase" for aesthetic reason.
Repository technique is applied, so it will use any existing recolors for Maxis vase.
Can be placed on all surfaces (including decorative slots), and does not prevent eating when placed on the dining table.
You might have to sell and rebuy the lot debugger for it to pick up the change.

It's not an actual hack, as it isn't very practical for me to keep up lot debugger's frequent update. It's rather a DIY package of replacement mesh files and BHAVs. Whenever lot debugger is updated, open the new lot debugger in SimPE and add/replace these files. Basic SimPE skill is required.

Update: Dizzy posted a patcher in this post. No need to use SimPE, yay!


Instruction:

1. Open FFS Lot Debugger in SimPE.

2. Delete the existing TXMT and TXTR for the black bat box.
(Right-click on them in Resource List window and click Delete.)

3. Delete the existing CRES and SHPE.

4. Add GMDC, GMND, CRES and SHPE.
(Right-click on blank space of Resource List window and click Add.)

5. Replace the "Function - Init" BHAV (instance number is 0x00001000) with the matching BHAV. You can find the correct BHAV by the last group of numbers in their filenames.

6. Add the other two custom BHAVs. (Instance numbers are 0x00001FFE and 0x00001FFF.) I gave them the highest instance numbers so that they would not conflict with official Awesome BHAVs. They are required so that the vase can sit on any surfaces and serve as a table deco.



Posted here by request of Emma in this thread.

The same technique can be applied to any Maxis object you like. Clone an object, set ModelName as ffsdebuggerbox in scenegraph rename wizard, extract mesh files (GMDC, GMND, CRES and SHPE). You may or may not need to modify BHAVs, it depends on what kind of object you're cloning. Apply repository technique to pull textures from the Maxis object.

[Emma]

I'll have to try this tomorrow, I think my brain would explode if I tried today Thanks LD.

[V]

This is good to know. But I am with Emma: I can't do it today. My head will explode.

[Zazazu]

Yay. Care to teach me to mesh, too? I'm still too scared to even download Milkshape. No idea why.

[dizzy]

I probably would have just changed the model name string, but this is pretty cool too.

[morriganrant]

Any thoughts on making a tutorial to change the debugger into the decorative object of your choice?

[Theo]

These model files can be assembled in a separate package so they override the default ffsdebugger model, as long as you name the package taking into account the loading order rules.

It's not possible to do this with the BHAV files due to their group (0xFFFFFFFF). So, would it be possible to assign a custom group to the ffsdebugger object in order to allow external overrides to it?

[Zazazu]

Any thoughts on making a tutorial to change the debugger into the decorative object of your choice?

You should be able to clone the deco object (assuming it's not custom, in which case you can just open the package file) and extract the files Lord Darcy has said to replace. Then delete the cloned package file.

[Emma]

I think V means like TJ's VC. You can choose between a variety of plants for the controller.

[V]

Yes. That is exactly what I was thinking of.

[Lord Darcy]

I think V means like TJ's VC. You can choose between a variety of plants for the controller.

It would probably be beyond my limited modding ability. In any case, a new function like "Change Model" should be added to pie menu, which will surely conflict with official Awesome pie menu whenever a new function is added to the lot debugger.

It's not possible to do this with the BHAV files due to their group (0xFFFFFFFF). So, would it be possible to assign a custom group to the ffsdebugger object in order to allow external overrides to it?

I was under the impression that it's only possible to official Maxis objects. Wouldn't it cause a possible conflict with Maxis objects if a custom group is assigned to the cc object?

[Theo]

It's not possible to do this with the BHAV files due to their group (0xFFFFFFFF). So, would it be possible to assign a custom group to the ffsdebugger object in order to allow external overrides to it?

I was under the impression that it's only possible to official Maxis objects. Wouldn't it cause a possible conflict with Maxis objects if a custom group is assigned to the cc object?

Using a custom group may cause conflict in the event of a hash collision, but I don't think its use is restricted to maxis objects only. For example, this conversion of an LS object has a custom group, and can be downloaded as you'd normally do with other objects.

[dizzy]

Just for the heck of it, I made a patcher so you can avoid having to use SimPE.

To use this, move ffsdebugger.package to wherever you unzip this, then double-click the patch.bat file.

See http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6992.0.html <-- this thread if you need the source code for the tools.

[croiduire]

So now I have ffsdebugger.package and ffsdebugger2.package, along with (I assume) the no-longer-needed installation exes (append, create, extract). Can/should both package files go back in my game? Is there any reason to hold on to the exes?

[dizzy]

All you need at that point is ffsdebugger2.package. No reason to hang on to anything else (except the original zips for archival purposes).

[Lord Darcy]

Thanks dizzy. It will be especially useful for Mac users who can't use SimPE.

Any thoughts on making a tutorial to change the debugger into the decorative object of your choice?

I wrote a sort of mini tutorial at the end of the first post. Below is more verbose version.

==========================================================================
How to turn FFS Lot Debugger into Maxis decorative object of your choice

This tutorial assumes that you have basic understanding of object cloning. If you don't know how to clone an object in SimPE, I suggest that you read this tutorial first. (Skip the stuff about 3D meshing and texturing, you only need to read the part about SimPE.)

1. Clone a decorative object of your choice as usual in Object Workshop. It does not need to be an 1-tile object.

2. In the Scenegraph rename wizard, set ModelName as ffsdebuggerbox, click Update and click OK. DO NOT tick the box named University Ready v2. Save it in the convenient folder.
As dizzy has said, it really does not matter. You can change ModelName if you want. I just prefer making it as close to original as possible.

3. Before extracting mesh files, apply repository technique to pull textures from the original Maxis object.

4. Extract these 4 resources from your clone.

Geometric Data Container (GMDC)
Geometric Node (GMND)
Resource Node (CRES)
Shape (SHPE)

Save these 4 resources in a safe folder for future use. You'll need them whenever lot debugger is updated.

5. Open the Lot Debugger in SimPE, and delete the existing TXMT and TXTR for the black bat box.

6. Delete the existing CRES and SHPE.

7. Add GMDC, GMND, CRES and SHPE you extracted from the clone.

8. If you're cloning an object like large sculpture or floor plant that can sit only on the ground, you're done. But if you're cloning something like a small plant or a painting, you have to change the object placement of the lot debugger. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to put it on surfaces or hang it on the wall.

If you're cloning a small decorative object that sits on various surfaces, you can reuse my edited custom BHAVs in the first post. 0x00001FFE allows lot debugger to serve as table deco. If your object is too large to serve as table deco, you can leave it out.

If you're cloning anything else, replace "Function - Init" BHAV with mine, but don't add other 2 BHAVs.

Read this tutorial first for basic understanding of object placement.
Select Tool - Object Tools - Import SemiGlobals in SimPE, and pick the right semiglobal for your clone, e.g. PaintingGlobals for paintings. Select Scan, select Uncheck all, and import only BHAV: Function - Init. (Sometimes the name can be different.)
Select newly added BHAV, click on Resource tab, and change the Instance number to 0x00001FFF, and commit.
Select Plugin View tab again, change the filename to something like Function - Init - Painting to avoid confusion.
If you want to change the object placement further, follow this tutorial.


This tutorial can be applied to other object hacks as well.

[morriganrant]

Woot! Now to go forth and modify! I just need to figure out which decorative object that I use the most often and would do well for any social class of sims. I do not use flowers around the house often. Maybe a sculpture.

[seelindarun]

Thanks dizzy. It will be especially useful for Mac users who can't use SimPE.

Actually, no.
I tried this on the faint hope that it was a Unix shell script, but no joy.  Just lots of command-not-found and syntax errors.

Dizzy, if it is indeed supposed to run on Unix flavours, could you provide some more detailed instructions?  Maybe I was using the wrong shell environment or something...  I can navigate and am reasonably comfortable on the command-line, but I couldn't make sense of the discussion regarding the source code.  

[dizzy]

I could do up some instructions, but it would probably be quicker for me to put together an archive specifically for Macs. I have some free time tonight, so I'll look into it.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot about the endian issues. I have a PPC, so I'd have fix all that before I could test it here. If you can recompile the code on an x86 Mac, I have a bash script you can try:

patch.sh:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#

echo ffsdebugger.package mod script
if [ -e ./ffsdebugger.package ]; then
  ./extract -g FFFFFFFF ffsdebugger.package
  rm FFFFFFFF-42484156-00001000-00000000.dat
  ./create ffsdebugger2.package
  ./append ffsdebugger2.package *.dat
  rm *.dat
  echo Finished. Replace ffsdebugger.package with ffsdebugger2.package.
else
  echo Error: ffsdebugger.package file missing!
fi

[seelindarun]

I have a PPC too, don't I?    By that I mean PowerPC mac, as opposed to Intel mac, but you mean something else?

Anyway, I take it that I'm to get the source code for extract, append, and create from the link farther above, recompile and then run the bash script?  Great, and thank you for that!    I'll go play tonight.

Funny thing is, I don't even want my lot debugger to look like anything else, but as soon as someone throws up the whiff of mac tools... must. acquire. 

[dizzy]

By PPC, I mean PowerPC. I assume you have a G4 or G5.

Compiling is the easy part. You open a terminal and type something like:

gcc create.c -o create

And if it complains about stricmp, you'll need to load the source in TextEdit and change stricmp to strcasecmp.

The endian issue is a bit tougher to deal with. Anywhere in the source where you see the "!le!" comment, that means it has a little endian dependency. PowerPC is big-endian, so you'd have to recode those lines as appropriate.

See this info if you want to actually try to tackle the task:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFMemoryMgmt/Concepts/ByteOrdering.html

[seelindarun]

Aha!   Light comes on. 

Okay.  Actually the link you provided helped a lot and was pretty cool, so I think I'll try re-coding as an exercise for myself.  If I get really frustrated, I do have an old mac that can bail me out.

[Qwiggles]

Just for the heck of it, I made a patcher so you can avoid having to use SimPE.

To use this, move ffsdebugger.package to wherever you unzip this, then double-click the patch.bat file.

See http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6992.0.html <-- this thread if you need the source code for the tools.

Ok, so this patcher should work with new versions of ffsdebugger, right?  As long as I have your original patcher files, I can reuse it with a newer ffsdebugger file and my new vase ffsdebugger would carry over all the changes that Pescado made.  Coz, uh, we just got an updated ffsdebugger file from him.   

[dizzy]

That's right. And let me know if it doesn't work.