More Awesome Than You!

Sorry, but I don't get it. Why do I have to crawl on my hands and knees and beg for access to *look* at a discussion for an OPEN project?

This is just stupid. If you want people to test your shit, put it out in the open where people can access it. Don't hide it and then pretend to be surprised when you get bug reports in the "release" version.  :P

I applied for the QA version of SimPE on the 21st October but haven't heard anything back yet and I'm still not able to access the closed forum.  I figure that they've had a lot of requests for the wait to be this long.

As far as asking for people to apply to be beta testers, I imagine the modders want to avoid random stupids from BBSland screaming that experimental stuffeth has borked their game and other useless observations/complaints.  I bet you'd be surprised how many people lack the technical knowhow to click a link and apply to join a closed group, these people probably lack the intelligent input normally required of testers.

That's just the thing. Your perfect beta testers are the random stupids, because they find all the little quirks you'd never cause yourself.

I could see them wanting to avoid the deluge of duplicate reports or spammers, but even those things have nothing to do with whether you operate openly.

I also asked for the QA version of SimPe about 3 to 4 weeks ago. Have never heard a word back.

Yes random stupids are much more likely to do stupid things *nods* but I would worry about their ability to communicate their stupidity effectively :p

Kelly: damn that means I have at least two more weeks to wait.  Unless of course, they may be so close to the public release that they aren't accepting any more testers.

For those who wish to download it Paleoanth already posted it.  Here is the thread, and here is the direct link to his/her rapidshare. Since rapidshare is a piece of crap that wants you to wait for the privilege of downloading from them I have uploaded it to my 4shared account. I checked the forum and I can verify that this is the most recent version. I assume that most MATY members will already know that this is an unreleased program that is still being tested so it will run slowly, act wonky at times, and potentially destroy your hood/sim or melt your brain. I am also certain that it is obvious to everyone that one should back up one's hood before using the QA version.

Edit: Updated link to SimPE QA version .63h
Edit: Removed links to QA version. Real version is now available on the official simPE site.

Actually MD, I downloaded a copy from somewhere (don't remember where but I'm sure someone posted the link here on maty) and I have the file but I don't know how to attach it here or where I could upload it so you could download it.

Wow, I'm loads of helpful, aren't I?

eta: Nevermind, Invisigoth FTW!

Yay!  You rock Invisi :)

Heh, I obviously phail at the most minor of searches in that I didn't even think to search!

No worries. I signed up for QA way back around release date and I had the file two days later. It sucks that so many of you have had to wait for weeks. I wasn't just going to sit on the file and watch you all suffer. :)

I wasn't aware Jase or Jfade were involved in SimPE at all, and the reason the SimPE QA whatnot has been essentially on backburner forever is that Quaxi has essentially lost interest in the project and doesn't put any effort into doing anything about it. Hence, it's still QA and there isn't even a release.

So... do you think it likely that SimPE for BV will not be finished?  Will there even be a SimPE for the last EP?  I'm not pulling my hair out over this (yet), but I do have a few tasks that require SimPE to complete.  So do you think I should just suck it up and try the QA version, or wait and hope that Quaxi finishes the project, or just give it up as a lost cause?

We are part of a covert "black helicopter" squad bent on converting SimPE to an SMS plug-in for ICQ.

QA version is the only thing there is right now, but mostly, lost cause. Clearly, Quaxi has failed us. You must not!

What I mean is that you have to jump through hoops just to see what developers on the project are discussing, as is the case with anything jfade or jase-related. Meanwhile, if I wanted, I could sneak a peak at what the Gimp devs or even Second Life devs are currently up against. Why all the secrecy?

Simple: They're hiding the fact that they're doing NOTHING except sitting around being FAT and LAZY. Secrecy is the only way they can look busy and important. If you could see what they were doing, you'd realize they were doing absolutely nothing except making themselves look puffed up and important. :P

Quaxi doesn't deliberately exclude anyone from the QA, but his granularity of forum administration sessions is low and getting lower, so people get to wait an increasing amount of time.  I doubt he'd mind people passing it between themselves.  He just doesn't want to get the blame for officially publishing a tool that is not fully tested.

Once you have all updated to the QA version, you can get the latest PJSE by following links from simlogical.com

Actually, that's my attitude towards life.  I learned it from my cats.  Still learning from them, in fact. 

The QA version seems farily stable to me and I've had it for a couple of months, but then I don't use it for anything really complicated. I was lucky, I applied for the QA version and was given access the next day. I use SimPE all the time so if there isn't one for the next expansion pack it'll be a pain.

I wasn't aware there's any secrecy at all...

All the programs are here: http://forum.djssims.com/viewforum.php?f=11 - What you see there is what exists, including the current RC for the Wardrobe Wrangler.

Now, there IS a special forum for beta testers (http://forum.djssims.com/viewforum.php?f=18) but there's currently nothing active in there. Until recently, there were only two threads for the Alpha of the Wardrobe Wrangler, a very ugly and buggy alpha that I didn't want out there for the general public. The only thing that WAS in there before were two threads about an update to the Collection Creator that I had tested and released already (it was a minor update that I didn't feel needed open testing) and the Compressorizer, which was also tested publicly here. So that's the 5 threads.

So, since there's nothing currently active in there, if you or anyone else tried to get in the queue for the Beta Testers and haven't been approved, that's probably why. I haven't checked the queue for that group at all in forever. Matter of fact, I've not logged into the administration area of the forum in a while either. I'll do that now and approve anyone in there so they can see all the non-action. Additionally, I have no plans to have anything else tested in there anytime soon, so really, there's not much to hide.

On a slightly related note, I've been meaning to upload the source code for most of these programs for a while but just haven't gotten around to doing it yet, so if anyone's itching to see my horrible code, send me an email. :P

And on another slightly related note, I don't even have a planning or anything like that area for the developers to discuss things because there are no other developers. I have one person who helps with UI images and if I ever need anything from her I just poke her on IRC. :P

(http://www.hrwiki.org/images/2/23/pompom.PNG)

You seem to have misplaced your avatar.

It's part of my covertness.

Thanks for the link Invisigoth.  Inge, do you know if Peter has the clothing mesh extractor ready for this version yet? (Not that I have much time for meshing at the moment ::) )

I don't think it needed updating.  Also on our website we have a new tool Wes_H specced for dog collars or overlays or something.  That won't be included in mainstream simpe so you have to get that seperately.

It must be for pet coat overlays.  The collars are done.  I haven't decided whether I even want to tackle the coat overlays or not. 

It should round up all the parts for items that are linked using the three keys and an XTOL or XMOL, such as the collars, Non-replacement Pet coats, face templates and other CAS only items.

What Peter wrote is very powerful. However, we seem to have lost the most adventurous object modders in the last year, we are down to "New Mesh" as an advanced mod.

<* Wes *>

Well, I think at this point the only frontier that hasn't really been plumbed much is Animation, and with the writing on the wall saying TS2 will be dead soon, it looks like this is as far as we're likely to get barring a sudden breakthrough.

Well, what would you like to animate?

I have a reasonably well working animation exporter, released. Most of the material released that uses it is risque or p0rn.

I also have an unreleased  package that disassembles animations into an editable text format and will then recompile the files to game format. Someone who knew nothing about MilkShape or any other package could use this package and edit animations with just these two tools (AnDis and AniComp) and wordpad or notepad.

I made an attempt at importing the frames into MilkShape, but the Sims2 animations are not very useful to import because the IK animation data is in the animation files and the game engine, and most of the arms and legs action goes missing. I don't want to buy maya or something that expensive for a tool set.

We (testers and I) have modified facial expressions, and have inserted stuff from one file to another. It disassembles ANIM files that even SimPE chokes on.

If I knew someone that would actually do something with this, I'd give them the tools to use. They are relatively small command line things (plus one MilkShape plugin), although not as elegant as dizzy's work, reasonably bloat-free.

I tried to design the set so it was modular and I might be able to migrate other things in (such as BVH files) and later migrate animations out, possibly to Sims3. Right now, the wide variations in skeletal structure, and my thick cranial tissues, have hampered my efforts at transferring BVH files to the game.

You could just stick it in the Bowels of Trogdor. We can't very well figure out what to do with it unless we can see what it does, after all.

Well let's have them then!  I have been waiting 3 years to wipe those stupid grimaces off my sims' faces  >:(

Well, did anyone ever tell you to be careful what you wish for?

Seek, and ye shall find.