More Awesome Than You!

Unless a miracle happens and Quaxi suddenly reappears, I am going to upload a release version of SimPE at MTS2 probably.  Not the debug version that is being shared currently.

Unfortunately the SimPE forums are down and so I can't see if there were any outstanding bugs reported in the QA forum.  Is anyone here aware of any?  I mean real bugs, not irritations.   Peter can try to address the irritations later.

Thanks, Inge, that's good to know.

I haven't encountered any bugs (I think), though I can't figure out how to get the image preview to work. I know Theo's color binning tool wasn't working with it, but I'd guess that's a separate issue from SimPE itself.

Ziggy sends a virtual dozen of red roses to Inge.

Yeah, everything's been working fine for me with QA version. Changed some zombies to unemployed after making them townies gave them jobs, messed with some family ties/trees, changed photo album references, normal personality editing. Also did quite a few recolors and even some neighborhood object cloning for custom watertowers. No hiccups.

All is well with mine too. Although I don't do coloring, cloning, modding for ts2. But the casual SimPe users interfaces all work fine for me.

Hooray for Inge (and Peter, of course).

Could you also post an updated rar on sf.net? I'd really hate to be too dependent on any one site.

I second the request to put it on more than one site.  I have serious problems downloading from MTS2.  I will try to download a small file, say a 20 kb file, and the download won't finish.  It will download 17 kb then end.  After seven or eight tries I may get a file - or I may never get it.  Large files are even worse.

The color binning problem could be addressed in SimPE. It came from Quaxi changing calls to some deprecated functions into errors. I believe Theo posted a query about why it didn't work, Quaxi provided an answer and now both of them have gone missing. Although since the site is down who can be sure.

Thankyou for sorting this out and I third the suggestion that it is available from multiple locations as I expect there will be something of a stampede for it.


I had similar problems and not just with MTS2. It turned out that IE was at fault so I switched browser to Opera and that fixed it.

I've binned a couple of hairstyles with Theo's plugin with no apparent problems. Double checked them in the game, and everything looks good. Should I pull them out?

I am consistently getting a freeze up when I attempt to look at the Memories option for a Sim in the Plugin view, but maybe I'm simply not giving it enough time to load. (It seems to stick on a "Dragon?" query. Makin' Magic vibes.) I tend to use Simpe mostly to get information and not a lot for editing. Also, I got my copy through a link here, so maybe it's a dated version.

Peter did say to me "Shall I try to fix Theo's binning tool?"  So he's willing to give it a go.   I think we'll aim to update in situ with more frequent public releases rather than the QA system Quaxi was using.  That way you get more feedback about bugs and suggestions and it's more fun to develop :)  It'll be "back up before use and caveat emptor" - we don't offer a nanny service!

But first we'll release it as it is, fixing binning tools a little later.  Is there anyone here with teen stuff who would be willing to act as guinea pig?  I have edited the files to accept it, but I don't have the SP myself for a fina test.

Dizzy: yes he's already updated the CSV with the latest build and I'll ask him to post the distribution packages there too.  I think it would be second nature to him anyway.

I have TSS but I don't normally use SimPE to do anything complicated - mostly changing family names and tweaking DNA strings, that sort of thing.  I would be glad to test it out, though.  I've been using the QA version since BV came out and haven't had any issues.

Glad to see you stepping up to do this!  I definitely agree that it should be put up on more than one site - I shudder to think of the stampede at MTS2 as everybody rushes to download it all at once.

Karen

And another problem with MTS2 exclusivity is that they have a 14 age limit, and I dare say there are banned people too.  So there has to be a way of getting it to them.   The benefit of having it available at MST2 at all is it will encourage people to post feedback which will help to spot bugs.

http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_0_TestDist.rar

This download is a manual installation - just unrar it, move it where you want, and run SimPE.exe from inside the folder.  Please let me know if you can find the teen style things in Object Workshop

I'd appreciate it if only people who want to do this test downloaded from that link, because it's not in a place with a large bandwidth.  As soon as this is over, within a few hours hopefully, it will be available in other places.

I got it, Inge. I don't have any SP, but I just finished installing the game on a new computer. So there isn't much to back up, and the computer is brand spanking new. Less chance of it, or an already borked game having anything to do with SimPe's performance.

Thanks.  Please let me know ASAP if anything crops up that you think makes it unsuitable for public release at this moment.

Meanwhile, I still need to hear specifically from people with teen stuff whether teen things are showing in object workshop ok, because that's the bit I had to update manually without being able to test it.

I just downloaded it Inge-I need to shut off my game so I can have a look. I'll report back asap.

Clearly, Quaxi has failed us. You must not!

Inge I can't get it to run. I'm going to re-download as it says I am missing a file.

Does it say which?

Yes, but I forgot :D Sorry, I am running my game again now as I needed to see something for Pescado. I'll try again in a bit.

I just tried out SimPE_0_64_0_TestDist.rar, and it works okay for my purposes (which aren't that much, admittedly).

Thank you Dizzy.  Hopefully Emma's problem will just turn out to be an incomplete download after all.

I didn't like how the rar is twice the size as Quaxi's usual releases though, I will be going through it with Peter later to see if it can be got smaller.  I used best compression on it.

That's the thing about rar. Not quite as good as 7-zip compression-wise, but it is a bit better known.

Did you build it as "release"? Building it as Debug tends to result in massively bloated files.

It won't open fully for some reason, it is probably IZarc. Sorry Inge.

Pescado, it's meant to be the non-debug, ie release version, because we know the debug version is already being shared.  I am inclined to advise making both freely available, just for now, in case something didn't build properly.  Peter often mentions that Quaxi didn't upload some component to sourceforge.  I haven't had any disagreement on the forum at MTS2 where I suggested the time was right to share the QA openly.   I think we left a respectable time for Quaxi to have emerged.  If he's ill he'll probably be glad if we're getting on with it.

Thanks for this Inge!

I seem to be having a problem getting object workshop to open, I click it and nothing happends, But the teen style stuff objects are in wizards of simpe which I always use anyway.

Slight off topic, Is there anyway to recolor the black EAxis phone that came w/ Pets?

Thanks alot Inge and Peter


Rich ;D

Rich, was Object Workshop opening ok for you in the QA build?  Or if you have not tried the QA, in version 0.62?

Well, I had the QA version and I never tried it..

But It was working in 0.62, cause I always used it to clone things

Rich

I would be very grateful if you could try opening OW in the QA version because at this stage of testing my main interest is to make sure we didn't mess something up making the release build rather than the debug build.

Well, I was messing around in 0.64 and I got it to work, I had to go to the window tab and click on "Object Workshop so it was deactivated, then click on it again and it worked, I don't remember doing that before tho...

That was for QA and Your release I had to do that...

EDIT: Since I did that it works the normal way :D

Rich

It opens just fine for me, Emma. I hope you can get it resolved. It works like a charm so far.

I haven't tried the BV features yet, that's next. Other than that, it does what I need it for. Which also isn't that much. Just your average SimPe user stuff.

I have found the rar was full of pdb files which Peter informs me are not required, so I deleted those, rared it up and uploaded it again.   It's the normal size now.

Keep the reports coming, and I will make a decision in about 12 hours whether it's ready for a public release.

Where did you re upload it, I went to the first link and its still the same, did I miss something?

The same size?  Try ctrl-f5

Thanks :D That worked... Everything I have tried in SimPE works just as it did before

Thanks once again Inge and Peter :D


Rich

Would you believe that in all this time we've waited for Quaxi, emailed Quaxi saying are you ok, finally started thinking Quaxi had completely lost interest, said on forums all over that (including where Quaxi et all can read it) if Quaxi doesn't say anything soon Peter can make the release (Quaxi gave Peter project rights at SF some time ago) and we heard nothing from anyone objecting.   We then gave a couple of days notice of beginning.   Finally Peter makes the release and someone comes up bleating claiming to be in touch with Quaxi and how mean we are stealing the project from him when he just wanted some time to himself and will carry on when he is ready.

Anyone would think they were deliberatelty holding back waiting for someone to make a move they could bleat at.
I am so thoroughly sick of the politics.  Peter has enough to do with his own job without doing extra work he didn't need to do and then getting bleated at for it.

Ignore the Sheeple, for they know not better. Or borrow a rocket launcher from Pes, and make a quick display out of them.

You and Peter rock, for carrying on the torch, even if Quaxi comesback later, he should be gratefull that you are trying to give his work to the public.

Kudos to ya both.

This person purports to be in touch with Quaxi...  and they had admin rights on his forum.  "Stormwench".  By coincidence just happened to hear from him for the first time in weeks the very day Peter decided to release the build.  Convenient.  And no manners at all.   They could have PMd me instead of bleating all over the forum about stealing his work.   This person is a master of timing and presentation.

I'm always late to the party. Tried to DL the test version, but couldn't get it.

I run all my Dls through SimPE. I've been waiting for the newest version.

If Frank was around and he objected to your release, he'd say so. He's probably quite sick of all the mean people in this community and has stepped back a bit. Being partlly mean myself as a result of the meanies here: screw those detractors! Anyone that has been around for any length of time knows better.

They're either full of shit, or as you suggested, looking for a reason to cause drama, Inge.

I'm going to note something that happened with my use of a beta version, but it may be irrelevant, since I  a. don't really know what I'm doing with SimPE most of the time, and b. may have been using an already replaced version of the beta. Either way, the only thing I had used it for was to extract some sims using Sim Surgery.

Essentially, I went into a lot that should have had eight playable sims. Only seven where in the panel and two of those were invisible and uncontrollable. The only thing I had done to this neighborhood in weeks was some building remodeling downtown and extracting sims, so my conclusion was that SimPE somehow ate my sims. I had this happen once before ages ago, so I've learned to back-up before I do any extracting. I lost my remodeled buildings with the back-up, but those are easy enough to get out of the old game.

Any way, thank you so much for working on this, even if you're getting some sheep bleating at you for actually trying to help out the simming community.

Orikes, I have a funny feeling someone reported sim surgery as broken in the QA. I don't use it myself so I probably wasn't taking enough notice.   It's stuff Peter could have fixed in time, given time.  But as it is, I am treating it as if the original author has instructed us to desist.   The person has hardly any posts, yet full admin rights over the GUID database and the forum.  It invites thought...

I thought SimPE was open source. Also, the author has apparently taken down his forum. This is a program people depend on, and I think you and Peter continuing the work is completely legitimate, bleatings of random person notwithstanding. If Quaxi has a problem, Quaxi should be the one contacting you.

I have no idea whose hand is up Stormwench's backside.  As I said, "she" has complete admin rights over the site and fixed the forums.  She tells me she will be maintaining the GUID database if it needs it too.   Might as well let her get on with it then.

Exactly, and you shouldn't have to figure it out. I don't like all this Mission Impossible garbage. This community is ridiculous enough without people using mouthpieces to say what they should be saying themselves.

Well, I'm obviously not in your position anyway. I wish I could program, but I can't, I can only say that if you were to decide to keep on with updating SimPE I'd support you.

Oh sorry lol I started editing my post before you replied and then got distracted  :-[

I've only used sim surgery for cloning sims, using the QA BV version, and it worked fine for that.

Inge, for what little it may be worth, my opinion is that you (and especially Peter) have done a positive service for the community by taking the current work to the next stage.

<* Wes *>

How long has it been since Quaxi's made a post anywhere? After a certain point, you have to consider someone out or taking a break from the community, announcement or not. It's now more than three months since BV came out, which is an absolutely ridiculous wait when there's a perfectly good tool just sitting around unreleased. I say forget Stormwench. Anyone can claim intimate relations with someone else...this doesn't make it true. Quaxi hasn't raised any complaints. Quaxi hasn't said anything. Release the floodgates.

I'm with the majority (like my opinion even matters  :P). Anyone can claim that someone said something or can blow a casual comment, by the person in question, into a great drama. My thoughts are, if Quaxi knows about it and has objections about it, why has Quaxi himself not emerged to say so, when he knows perfectly well were he can go and who to get in touch with? Why has only this one person had such a discussion about it with him?

Clearly, Quaxi has failed us! You must not!

Amen.

Thanks for the info, Inge. I had a feeling it might be something like that. The extracted sims all seem to work just fine, but occasionally something gets borked with the sims themselves. Thank goodness for valid back-ups.

I really hope someone over there gets on the ball and starts posting some information on when we're going to get an update or let people who actually want to do it DO IT. I get irritated every time I check out their forums. I understand not wanting to have to answer every 'OMG I need SimPE NOWZ!' post, but the community really does depend on the damn program. Most of us are screwed without it when it comes to saving our games if something goes wrong.

Fah. Thanks for at least trying, Inge.

The SimPE forum was down for several days. Then the day it reopens, someone you never heard of before comes with admin rights and claims to be the "new owner".
SimPE site suffered attacks before, and Quaxi is not around anymore to confirm the thing. I just think this stormwench hacked the site.

Or she may be a sockpuppet^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hjust trying to help

Just tell them you intend to fork the project if they don't shut up. That'll shut them up. If it doesn't then go ahead and fork it. I'll applaud in advance of that decision.  8)

I am sure Peter would understand this forking stuff, but as he's at work for the next 8 hours can you explain it a little for me?  Currently Peter has direct submission rights to the main project, and he updated it with 0.64.   Does forking mean he starts essentially a new project in his own name, using Quaxi's code as a basis?  Or is is just a branch within the main project area?

Forking would mean taking the free as in freedom parts of the code and starting a new project with it. People don't always like it, but it's sometimes necessary when things aren't getting done.

Now you're introducing another concept to me "freedom".  How are these parts of the code marked, and what is the difference?  I thought everything on sourceforge was sort of PD.  It all sounds very complicated.

Okay. I'm not a lawyer, but the "LICENSE.txt" indicates that SimPE is your standard GPL v2 code. So, unless you're dealing with some portion of the code that's licensed some other way, it should be okay to use in a new project as long as the new license for the new project is not more restrictive than the GPL itself.

If Quaxi's the sort of person we all assumed him to be, someone who enjoys coding and with a tendency to be generous (ie making something for the benefit of others) and also someone who doesn't spend a lot of time interacting with the community apparebtly enjoying the glory, but someone who was becoming increasingly bored with sims-related stuff, then I can't see how he could possibly object to someone simply  continuing the project.  He has no reason to believe his founding contribution will be airbrushed out of history.

Yet I can't believe that Stormwench is just speaking her own erroneous opinion when she is in sufficient communication with Quaxi to have his full trust as server admin in spite of being *apparently* new to the community and not a very active member at that.  Hence the relationship must be at a lower level than just sims community.   Could it be that she gained his trust, then murdered him, and now feels guilty and somehow wants to keep his status as SimPE developer alive?

This happened before.  Does anyone remember an "Emily" who appeared on the SimPE forum apparently from nowhere, who beat him up so badly she broke his arm and after several weeks of us worrying what had happened to him she took over as his spokesperson and ran the forum?  Fortunately she was even able to code SimPE temporarily.  I wonder if Stormwench has that ability too?

Wow. Have you talked to anyone whom you know to be close to Quaxi? Numenor, maybe?

Quaxi seems to be a very private person and I don't think he has confidantes in the sims community, apart from perhaps one female who I count/counted as my friend, who also had admin access on his site but who I believed to have moved on and lost interest in simming.  It was through her that I heard when he was missing previously that he was ok and chatting to her regularly about non-sims related things - and that he was becoming less and less interesting in SimPE.  And that was back just before the Emily period.

If this is the same person using a new ID of "stormwench" and she didn't have the good grace to contact me privately when she saw what Peter and I were planning, rather than "scolding" us on a public forum, then she can cross me off her friends list permanently!

I don't really see the big deal as long as the developers don't mind the work involved. And it's not like the work can't be merged back into SimPE if Quaxi decides to go back to work on it.

Clearly, Quaxi has failed us. You must not!

I see the bot is operating the Pescado account currently.  Personally I think Fairlight does a better job when it's his turn ;)

Sim Community Drama is better than day time soaps or even prime time thrillers, at times. Broke his arm?? *Pictures quaxi kidnapped and gagged.
I just repeat what I have expressed before: you and Peter do an awesome thing. Furthermore, the source is open. If quaxi is alive and interested in this he will say so, I believe. Ignore all others.

Peter just phoned me for his lunchtime chat.  I think what he will do is post both the QA and his release builds onto sourceforge as well as his source as an update to the main project.  If Quaxi comes back to work he can decide whether to carry on from there or revert to where he left it.

If we do it that way rather than a previous plan of uploading it to MTS2, we can avoid sims community etiquette, politics, allegiances, prejudices and dead aunt sockpuppets altogether and just concentrate on sourceforge/gpl adherance.   Naturally, feedback and bug reports can be made to us in whatever way is practical, including on the SimPE forums.

Anyway, did anyone who downloaded the release 0.64 find it accessing Teen Stuff ok?   I still need that answer before I can release it.

Yes, Inge, I can see the teen stuff.  Sorry this morning was the first chance I got to open simpe. 

I have uploaded it to the link already given, again.  Peter found he only had edit rights not admin, so he couldn't make it a download  at the SimPE project on sourceforge.
 
I think the way forward now is for all the casual users to openly share 0.63hQA for the time being, and the more testing-minded users to use 0.64 from the above link.   I am aware the QA was never completed, and there is Theo's binning tool and Bidou's career editor completely missing from 0.63 and 0.64.

What else needs fixing?   If Pete actually adds stuff over and above .63, and/or we get to Freetime and Qaxi is still not back, then it will be time to upload at MTS2 and support the branch there.

I think you and Peter are awesome for taking on this project, and I'm so sorry you're getting abused for your efforts.  You are most certainly more awesome than the person/people abusing you.  And you're more awesome than those of us who rely on SimPE so much but have no clue as to what makes it tick.  Thank you.

Of course the other advantage of .64 over .63 is it has the latest PJSE included...

In other news, I found out where I heard that "Stormwench" name from. Apparently, she is a filthy Infidel Paysite Dog, and I suggest you pay no attention to her or her blatherings.

How odd... Quaxi was staunchly anti-paysite, he even had the Federation logo all over his site while it was in operation.  So where actually does Stormwench hang out?

Not a clue, but I have a log of someone by that name dating back to Nov, where they clearly reveal themselves as a filthy paysite dog. I can attach this if you wish to see, but clearly, Quaxi has failed us. You must not!

She appears to be credited with co-creating a bunch of stuff available at TSR and has participated in forums at MTS2.

Her profile at SimPE (amberton.de) is quite boring - she looks like a non-entity there (member since April, only 13 posts, not bugfixer).  I suppose if the forums have been down, the profile might be a bit out of date.

So how did she get to be admin, and why doesn't Quaxi let people know who the staff are and we could have let her know days earlier that there was a problem at the site!  I mean it's all very well everyone saying how Quaxi would have said this and would have told us that, but the reality is he's really not very communicative at all.

Pete's got several days off work over the xmas period, so if there are any requests for stuff that needs fixing in the SimPE core (I have already requested better refreshing of the resource list) now is the time to start thinking about it.

Do the admins have special special designations there?  I know at a small forum I run with some friends, people who have admin powers are automatically labeled as "administrator."  Stormwench's member status is "Regular."

It's just a thought.

Well apparently they don't, or Stormwench would be wearing her admin label.

Second-guessing what's going on behind the scenes gets no one anywhere. What we know is that Quaxi is not working on SimPE at the moment, that you and Peter seem to be the natural ones to take over, and that if you're willing to do it we'll all be very grateful.

I didn't know Quaxi was so loathe to communicate. That's seriously messed up for the maker of the most important tool in a large modding community. It's all very well to say, "it's free, shut up," but that doesn't negate personal responsibility, community spirit and common decency >:(.

Oh, sorry.  I didn't see where she was doing that.  I thought it was something she had just communicated to you, and you know, people can say anything.  Apologies.

Clearly, Quaxi has failed us. You must not!

I recommend that for Sims 3 (if it's possible to mod it at all) we go for the model of several smaller simpler tools for specific jobs.  It's more likely that way that people will write overlapping "rivals" so we won't be so vulnerable to the eggs in one basket syndrome.

Phyllis, she PMd me that she can ensure the site including the GUID database is maintained.   That either means she can do it personally (which gives her pretty much rights on the server - ie equal status with Quaxi (which is one reason I thought she might be a sockpuppet) or she has a great deal more influence over him than she is letting on.  And if he *is* logging on long enough to fix the forums then I think it would not have cost him a great deal more inconvenience to post while he's at it.   So that leaves us either with a rather less friendly Quaxi than we thought we had, or a Stormwench who has privileges well beyond her 13 posts.  The community is definitely more of a challenge than the game...

Every time I try to post this blasted post, someone has just posted another one and it stops me!!  Yes yes yes Pescado I heard you :rolleyes:

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/cats/asiancat.jpg)

Clearly, Quaxi has failed us! You must not!

Let's not have another GUID database next time, either. That was frankly a REALLY stupid idea. Whatever we do, it needs to be a lot more scalable.

I don't see anything inherently WRONG with the GUID database, but the alternatives would either inefficient allocate GUIDspace or simply not have a GUID database at all. However, there *ARE* about 4 billion available GUIDs in GUIDspace, so the odds of collision would be rather low even if GUIDs were randomly allocated. However, it is clear from what is going on at SimPE that the GUID database has been hijacked by paysite interests and can therefore no longer be relied upon. Clearly, Quaxi has failed us. You must not! SimPE is dead. Long live IngePE!

The mere fact that it *can* be hijacked (or someone could spill beer on the server) proves that it's inherently wrong. That gives a single choke point of failure, which is always a VBT. He who can destroy a thing controls a thing, etc.

Inefficient allocations are the fault of EA for not providing enough bits, and this once again goes back to the limitations of their shitty Simantics (which only provides 32 bits for a GUID). If their programmers working on TS3 have an ounce of common sense, they will more likely be using 128 or 256 bit GUIDs.

Actually, Simantics is not what limits GUIDs. Simantics is a 16-bit language, so they're already using two words for GUIDs. There is no reason why they could not use 4 or 8. In fact, there is no reason why they should *NEED* to use 4 or 8. There are *4 BILLION* possible GUIDs. Any reasonable person would believe this to be enough. Increasing the number of GUIDs would merely create a bigger sink for the inefficiency of wasteful allocations. The fact of the matter is, even with randomly allocated GUIDs chosen out of the asses of someone creating an object, you would need about 60K objects in your game before a collision would likely occur. At 60000 objects in your game, each consuming an average of 640K of space per GUID, you would need 3.75 GBs of RAM to load all of the objects, which exceeds the legal maximum RAM usage for a single program under XP32. Therefore, your game would fail to load anyway, rendering the collision issue moot.

There is really no efficiency issue with the size of GUIDs. You can make them 128000 bits if you wanted without any performance penalty (with proper tables and separate hashing).

Given that The Sims sells in the millions and each customer is a potential creator, it's obvious that you need at least a 64-bit GUID. However, the smaller the GUID, the greater the likelihood of GUID collisions.

The real problem isn't how many GUIDs could be used on one computer, but how many unique GUIDs the entire world could use. Any collision anywhere (among published objects) would still conflict if you use those two or more colliding objects with the same GUID.

Other than that you're chewing up 128000 bits of memory for a stupid GUID. What, do you need to address every single individual polygon of every object? Clearly this *IS* an efficiency hit: Computers function best when chewing on data of a certain size. A 32-bit processor chews on things 32 bits at a time. Hence, 32-bit GUID.

Each customer is NOT a potential creator of things that consume GUIDs. It is only through decidedly non-authorized 3rd-party tools that it is possible to use GUIDs at all. Customers can NORMALLY only create things that do not consume GUIDs: Clothes, hair recolors, wallpapers, none of which consume GUIDspace.

A spurious analysis: Why would anyone really care if Worthless Object A conflicts with Worthless Object B somewhere out there, when a given user is supremely unlikely to have both, and the penalties of such a conflict are minor? It is like the birthday collision problem. It does not matter how many people in the world share a birthday. All that matters is our collision set. After all, there are an infinite number of objects out there in worldspace. Every object, even with a database, collides with some other object, but does anyone care? NO! Nobody would ever USE most of that crap, and even if you tried, it would be impossible, because such an attempt would exceed the amount of RAM physically available to the computer. What's more, collision odds fall somewhat when you consider that the most noteworthy creators, the ones people will actually download from, are likely to make some amount of effort to deliberately avoid collision. There is simply no reason WHY we need to worry about collision space, when we could just deal with it by collision avoidance.

Inge and Peter  - - - - thank you , thank you and bless you both. I just downloaded the .64 version and have just done some recolors for TSS, BV, and celebration. It looks like they will be just fine.

You both are true heroes for doing this for all of us Simmers who would still be in SimPe withdrawal without you.

Ignore the small-minded idiot critics! They are petty pieces of u-know-what!

What you have done is fantastic and very appreciated .... as well as all the many things done that I have downloaded from Simlogical that I use all the time.

Thank you for all your excellent hard work and for doing this for us!

Daisylee, thank you!  While the great minds were debating the enormity of life, the universe and GUIDs, I was just waiting for one more person to confirm we had it set up correctly for Teen stuff :)

There's some evidence to suggest Teen Stuff isn't even setup to work with ITSELF, so I wouldn't stress too hard over it.

Okay...I'm a little late to the party (way late, apparently) and I just read through all this to get caught up.  That said, I have Teen stuff (and all the Crap packs) and I will be happy to test it for you if you still need it.  I've not done much with SimPE other than some recolors for myself, and a few personality changes, but if that is sufficient, then just point me where to download...

Thank you, http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_0_TestDist.rar

I am not that desperately worried about bandwidth to be honest - it's on the disgraced FFSS site, and it's not the end of the world if it's suspended for a while lol :D  Not like anything else is taking up bandwidth there, we only get about 3 visits a week.

Got it...opened it without issue, and promptly open a couple of Teen Style objects.  I can see them in both the Object Workshop and the SimPE Wizards (which is what I normally use).  I have no problems with either method finding the Teen stuff.

In the FWIW category, I have all stuff packs, all expansion packs, and I run Vista.

For my little knowledge of SimPE, it seems to be working great for what I use it for.. Thanks Inge! Can I post a link on my site to this so that members on my site can also get this and use it?

Give them a link to this thread here, then they can do all of: see the link, post any problem reports, and/or see the news if I have moved it elsewhere.

Okay Thanks...

Inge,

Is there anyway I can re add the Career Editor? I use that to check and make careers


Rich

We already knew it needed updating before the QA started this time.  Someone tried just putting the dlls in, but it's not working.  Needs a new build.  Does anyone know where the source can be obtained?

Ran my DLs through GUID check--it worked fine. But the health check threw an exception error on every item --something about value 5.

It is strange that sometimes when I open the program I get an error message about whether or not I want to replace files and sometimes I do not get the popup. I have been ignoring it and then seem to get into the program anyway.

I just did some more recolors and the only strange thing was that for the TSS goth bed it brings up the colonial bed frame  .... but that is probably Maxis  and not SimPe doing.

So far, all is sailing along smoothly with the .64 version from all I have done.
 :)

Yes I remember getting this myself, with one version a long time ago.  Trouble is I can't remember how it got fixed.  It's probably in one of the config files.  Numenor has offered to make the distribution installer versions, and he may know how to avoid this.  So Peter will just be doing the code updating.

I started a section at the PJSE forums to coordinate the work for a release, so if anyone reading this has been involved in SimPE creation previously, such as language translations, or plugins, please see us over there.

NO INSTALLERS! DEATH TO INSTALLERS!

I imagine there would certainly be a manual install version too.

not sure where else to post this. But I downloaded the simpe you linked to, and this is what i get every time i try to open the neighborhood in the NB browser:


I figured you would want to know. I got all expansion packs installed, but no stuff packs other than the cristmassy one.

Thanks.  Now that is working as usual for me.  I would be grateful if others would try opening a hood and see if they get a problem!

Is it at all possible you were trying to open a hood that got borked previously?

I have Windows Xp and all expensionpacks and stuffpacks installed. I can open Maxilots and custom lots. I can se teenstyleobjects and as far as I can tell all other kinds of Maxiobjects and I can se Sims in Simsbrowser. (I can not edit a Sim, but i do not think I am supposed to to that on this stage?). Thank you for doing this. I only use SimPe for Simseditions, but when you are used to it it is difficult to be without it.  :)

I have tried to edit my post but it does not work. I don´t mean lots, I mean hoods of course. Sorry. ::)

Have you tried to edit a sim?  Does it not let you or were you holding back because you think you're not meant to?

Thank you so much for working on the new edition of SimPe.  I downloaded 64 and have been working with it.  I seem to be able to create recolors okay.  I only made one large quilt. 

I have come across one thing.  I use the Material Override a lot to preview what I've made and with this new version I couldn't get it to open up in the Plugin View part.  The TXTR file showed up in the Plugin View but not the Material Override or the Material Definition.  This causes quite a problem if I want to make a shaped rug using Echo's rug mesh.  I can't change the Blend Mode since I can't open the Material Definition.

When I am in the process of of making a new object the TXTR file is visible in the Plugin View but if I just Open an new file the Plugin View won't show.

Jo H.

They're working ok in mine.  Can you check your Extra|Preferences|Plugins and see if they're disabled in there?  If so, can you make a note of anything else that you have disabled, please and let me know one way or the other.

"Have you tried to edit a sim?  Does it not let you or were you holding back because you think you're not meant to?"


It does not let me. The box where you usually edit don´t show up. (for the record, I talk about "64 test disk" if there are other kinds) :)

I had no problem at all opening up the neighborhood with the browser. I also did sim surgery on 5 servos successfully. I have all EPs and stuff packs.
I really appreciate you making this available. It was much needed. BAAAAAAAAH!

I happen to like sheep - sometimes I press the thankyou button just to listen :)

Davida, have you tried editing a sim in the QA version, 0.63h?  If you could try that to compare, it might be useful.  Thanks.

Inge, all of the plugins are enabled.  I didn't change a anything in SimPe except to Lock the Toolbar after I got the layout the way I like it.

Jo H.

"Davida, have you tried editing a sim in the QA version, 0.63h?"

I would love to, but where do I find that?.

"I also did sim surgery on 5 servos successfully."

I have almost forgotten the surgery. Tried to kopi a Sim from Pleasantwiew and from a custom hood out to bodyshop. Worked fine. Tried the same with 2 Sims from the Storiehoods "Vincent" and "Alice" (I have both Storiespack installed) and got Consort Capp from Veronaville and Bella Goth! ;D

Ok but you actually checked did you?  It is possible it shipped with them disabled.

Davida I have uploaded 0.63h to http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPe_063h_qa.7z.  If anyone does end up reverting to the QA due to problems with 0.64 please let me know and tell me what the problem was.

Okay. 063h starts by giving me a warning that a new expensionpack have been detected. But I can go in a hood, and edit a sim. The box pops up beautifully. Took a randsom teenboy who newer left the hood and changed some randsome events. Now he have been on vacation and learned firedance, he is going steady with another girlfriend, have another name and interests and is attending a privateschool!

Well I have a bit of a theory.  Could you try it once more in 0.64 but without uninstalling 0.63h?

Again, nothing in 064.

Ah well there goes my registry theory, thank you for trying :)  Perhaps you could also check in Extra| Preferences and see if all your plugins are enabled?

Yep, I actually checked in the program to make sure all the plugins were enabled.

It's strange some things in a program will work for some people and not for others, isn't it.

Jo H.

Yep, sigh....

Here is another test version, after Pete cleaned up his build folder radically.  It also benefits from Bidou's Career Editor being updated and put back in :)  http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_1_Test.rar

Sorry it has my recent file list in it lol!

I tried opening a neighborhood with v62 and got an error stating it couldn't open because of a sim being duplicated.

Neighborhood opened without a problem using v64 test.   Was able to view sim descriptions and  DNA and made changes in DNA which showed up correctly in game.

Only problem I had was not being able to run it by clicking on the exe.  It opened but couldn't use it. (The resource list panel does not show up and nothing I have tried can make it show)   Had to make a shortcut with -modernpreset in command line.
Had this same problem with v62 and notified Quaxi of it but never got a solution. Works fine though in modernpreset except that if working with it for an extended period either that panel or the pluginview panel will disappear and I have to close and restart.   

Hedgekat, was that 64.0?  I think 64.1 opens with all the windows in the right places.  Otherwise there is a little button with the tooltip "reset layout", or you can get to it via Extra|Preferences|Simpe settings.

Version 64.1  works beautifully for my (limited) use. I pop in and out of the hoods and the changes I make on the Sims  stay in the game too. (but I still get Consort Capp and not Vincent though   :))

I also find teenstyleobjects and gets no warning in start.

Hedgekat, is that you???  Haven't heard from you for the longest time at the usual places I hang out--Melynda's Playhouse which kinda used to be SA.

Anyway, I had rather the same problem, too, in getting the layout how I wanted.  The Plugin View and the Object Viewer kept disappearing and I couldn't get it to come back so I shut SimPe down and reopened it several times.  The resource tree still won't split up like I want it.  I mean the Resource Tree opens up but I just want the 3 things that branch off that--the TXTR, Material Override and the Material Definition--to be on my layout.  Still haven't gotten it.

Jo H.

Ah, problem solved.  I got the layout the way I want plus I can use the Material Override and Material Definition like I'm used to doing.  It was the Resource List that I needed to get in the layout.  I opened that earlier but didn't understand what I was looking at since it only showed one at a time.  Okay, it all is working so far, version 64, like I'm used to.  I don't use the Neighborhood feature but I did open it to see if it gave me any errors like some have been posting.  I didn't get any errors with it.  Sorry to have troubled you, Inge.

Jo H.

NP Jomammatee.

To everyone:  I have had one tester report that they can edit careers now apart from pet careers that gives an error.  Can anyone confirm this?   Can anyone think of a reason a pet career data might be different?

If you mean change careers it works both with persons  and animals in my game. I have tried it with and without custom contents and on Maxihoods and custom hoods  and I get no error. It is still  64.1 I use.

I was talking about using the career editor to actually edit the career data itself, not changing what career a sim happens to be on.  Did you try that at all?  Anyone else confirm 0.64.1 has a pet career problem with the Bidou career editor?

I tried 64.0.  I was so happy to be able to clean up the hood I'm playing to get rid of the cat that thought it was human and various duplicate sims.   :D

I deleted some sims (sim description, wants and fears, relationships) and memories.  Theo's memory plugin worked fine (right click to cascade delete). I didn't get the default window display that I'm used to - maybe I lost some settings during the install?  Only annoyance I had was that SimPE insisted on loading the objects table though I didn't want to do anything with the objects.  Waiting for that was annoying.  Maybe it's always done it and I've never noticed before.  :-[

I'd like an installer.  I didn't know whether I should delete all the old files or whether there were things I should keep.  I worried about it for a bit and then deleted the lot - if I had personalised settings they'd have gone then.  An installer makes those decisions for me.  A lot of people use SimPe who are not at all techie.  If you don't give them in  installer, you're going to need staff to man a board answering "where do I put it" & "how do I open a zip file".

PS - I'm not worried if the cleanup wasn't perfect - this is not a hood I plan on keeping going for ever.

Numenor's doing the installer download and it should be on MTS2 soonish.  In the meantime if you want to keep testing new stuff, there is 0.64.1 at http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_1_Test.rar

Obviously each new test version needs testing before we'll hand it over to Numenor for publishing.   Next test may include Echo's footprint editor.

The default gmdc exporter pliugin is missing from 0.64.1 test version. I noticed that I couln't export meshes after I made a fresh installation of 0.64.1 version.

Well spotted - thanks! :)

Quaxi's reappeared.

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/crapola/orly.jpg)
Because I don't see any Quaxi sighting. Where is it?

In the QA forum.

For such a grumpy old man, you really have the cutest pet pics, Pescado :D
And for those of us that dont have access to the QA forum, what does Quaxi say?

He's uploaded a release preview.  Unfortunately because he didn't see fit to address any of his developers directly to discuss the state of the project before he made this unexpected move, it's got the test build with the buggy career editor in it that Peter would have been about to fix.  Numenor, who had been planning to publish it probably today, knew which was the latest stable build that was ready for public release, because he took a few seconds to discuss it with us.  C'est la vie.

That's why EA didn't bother to make The Sims hard to play - they knew the real challenges would lie in dealing with the obstacle course that is the Sims Community.  ;)

Heh. Even with my sims free will on, ACR and fight club mods installed, my sims antics are but a light distraction from the community drama.

Anyway, I know people appreciate what you and Peter have been trying to do and I'd like to say thank you as well.
I also hope, as has been mentioned before, that there will be multiple programs developed by the community for future sims games. It's never a good thing to end up relying on one, in any situation. I've tried before to drag my brother back to playing the sims, as he does programming, and get him interested in the modding side, but it's not his cup of tea.

Meh, your .64 is working for my purposes, so I'll just continue to use it. Your efforts are much appreciated.

I don't suppose Quaxi has anything enlightening to say about this Stormwench person, like wtf she is or anything? It might be useful to know should he fall off the face of the planet again...

He hasn't felt moved to address anything other than the announcement of the pre-release.

I happen to have installed on my computer a 0.64.2 with a nifty graphical footprint editor provided by Echo :)   Not sure if Quaxi is planning to include that in the release, but it's been committed at SF by Peter.   Then I need to look at the career files to see if I can find out what the pet careers have that the human ones don't, so we might get that fixed too.  Can anyone remember whether the Bidou career editor ever handled pet careers correctly?

Ugh. Can we have developers who actually deign to talk to people next time? ::)

I don't know how to edit careers, sorry :-\.

I don't recall having ever run across any custom pet careers... but then, I've no interest in such and wasn't really paying attention.

There are a handful. (http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?f=229&threadcategory=Pet%20Career)

Edit: Now with fixed link! Get one today!

Well Pete's fixed the crashing so you can read a pet career in the Bidou editor now.  It just needs someone who is familiar with Pet careers to check that everything is listed that should be.   They have fewer BCONs was the main reason for the crash.  I can make a test release available tomorrow. (in about 9 hours that is)

Here it is: http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_3_Test.rar

BTW, the version "quaxi" is planning to release is also not updated for Teen stuff.  This one is.  I put quaxi in quotes because he's not usually that uncaring about what he releases.  I am continuing to sniff sockpuppet.

/me waits to see what happens

I should have bought some of that delicious looking fresh popcorn I saw in a shop earlier, to have ready to share...

Inge & Peter, would you like a first born as a thank you for your efforts? can totally spare one for you in a couple of years, lol. :P I do agree on Quaxi though...I took a peek at the forum over there and something's fishy about "him". maybe he got kathy bates-ed and they really are sock-puppeting him :D

Only if it's a Sim first-born.  I intend to have NO more babies and NO more pets, in real life.  I am finally free to look after my own needs a bit :)

Do you think they broke his legs?  ??? Should we alarm the authorities? And, can I have some popcorn too, pls?  ;D

Well Emily broke his arm so she could take over for a while, so Stormwench may have gone for his legs this time, I suppose :)

I just downloaded yours, Inge and since I need to do some footprint editing, I will see what I can do to break this for you.  Thanks a ton to both you and Peter.

The footprint editor comes thanks to Echo, of course.  That was such a good idea!

And I thought I got the worst of women...   :(
I'll believe he is alive when I see him on a video showing the newspaper of the day.
So, there are now 2 significantly different versions of SimPE V0.64 ?

No, only one 0.64.0 currently, although as that is the one without any new stuff being tested, that is probably the one Numenor was planning to release as an installer version.  It will still work the same obviously as it's the same build.   Quaxi actually "returned" just after Peter had committed 0.64.1 to sourceforge and packaged that up without prior warning and put it in the QA forum as a release candidate.  You'd think he'd be asking "what are all these updates, where have they come from, and have they been tested?" - even if he didn't want a social chat. 

Those would be the logical first questions from someone who's devoted a lot of time to a project, yes. Don't know how much "logical" applies though, when one is prone to up and vanishing without so much as a grunt and/or a quick "Going now, you work on it." But if it looks like a sock, smells like a dirty sock, it's probably a stinkin' sock puppet.   :P

Well in these couple of emails Stormwrench is supposed to have had from Quaxi, he's managed to describe to her a hell of a lot of detail that was contained in private emails between him and Peter from several months ago. Also in spite of only starting to post on the SimPE forums since just after Quaxi went missing, she knows what was in the forum posts, that Quaxi deleted almost as soon as they got posted, before she even joined.  Apparently someone had posted to say they thought SimPE was going pay or something brainless like that, which most people would simply roll their eyes at if they bothered to read the trolling at all.

Can someone please wash that sock; it's beginning to smell even worse.  (Was the semicolon ok there?)

Semicolon usage was very nice indeed. GP prefer "okay" to "ok".

Grammar Day 2007 - thank you for participating.

Okay, I will try to remember. :)

He could have just forwarded the emails to her; I have emails from 5 years ago, tucked away in various folders. It's a bit more difficult to explain the deleted posts.

I don't know Quaxi. In fact, I can't claim to really know anyone in the Sims community; my involvement as a whole consists of the few posts I've made here and at random other places. And as an outsider, the question that begs for answering is what reason Quaxi would have to sock puppet himself.  Maybe the strain is too much and he's finally lost it? In the end, if he is aware of what you are doing and wants you to stop, he'd tell you himself. Especially if sending this Stormchick to pass along his message doesn't get taken seriously. (At least, I hope this would be the case; otherwise, the Sims community drama llammas really are as bad as everything I've heard implies.  ;))

He could have forwarded the emails to her, but if he did, then again it becomes something a bit more than "oh I happened to hear from him today" and something a lot more drama-overlaid.  Why would a busy man supposedly only carrying on with SimPE as a favour to us need to be showing people emails about SimPE development to people who have just joined the modding community and not themselves involved in writing SimPE?  When I said private emails, I didn't mean personal ones - they were about SimPE development.  Peter doesn't *do* personal and drama with people he doesn't know.

Has anyone thought to take a close look at IP addresses? May or may not be helpful, but it's worth a shot. Even the most talented of puppet masters can forget something as simple as that. And if he's so disinterested in the project, he shouldn't have any problem letting someone else take over for a while.

It's funny how every online community seems to harbor a contingent of drama sheeple. There must be a school somewhere that they all attend.

The Sims 2 has a particularly large and prestigious school.

I don't think it's a school so much as they seem to just "spawn", like cockroaches.

Ah, the personal experience perspective.

Nothing we hadn't already guessed.  What still hasn't been explained is why he stubbornly refuses to ever keep his co-developers in the picture so they know what they can/can't/should/shouldn't do about it.  I have replied over there.

DID they break his legs? Enquiring minds need to know :P

Oh, any group of people will turn into a soap opera if it's sufficiently large and long-lived.  I was on a cross-stitch embroidery forum years ago where the subject of tea-dyeing embroidered stuff got so hot and heated that one member sent another something (we were never told what) that set the recipient's daughter into hysterics.

We won't even get into the discussions on the SFWA boards at Sff.net.....

I think each significant developer on a project should have their own version of the code. The main developer should probably focus on simply maintaining the main code by merging the various diffs that each developer contributes. Ideally, the version control software would handle all that automatically.

Yes but if the main developer only has 5 mins to spare every 3 months, still not much will get done in terms of actual releases out there.

*munches popcorn whilst reading of TEH DRAMAS*

All kidding aside, you have another tester, if you still need/want them. If I run into any problems, I'll report it. I'm not any kind of programmer, but if it is broken, I can at least tell someone. :P

Hey Inge,

I extracted and built 2 new mesh packages with the third test release, and both times they looked like the bones were damaged. (Explosions in Bodyshop)
I downloaded Quaxi's release and built one, and no problems. I don't know what exactly was causing this, but I allready excluded Wes_H's Unimesh. If you need me to test again, contact me and I'll provide you with the meshfiles.

xNouk

Nouk, do you mean Quaxi's release preview he posted briefly in the QA forum yesterday, or his 063h QA, or his previous public release 0.62?  The one that was working ok I mean?

The 'preview' one.

Thanks for the report, I'll get Peter to look into it!

It's most probably just something didn't get packaged right, as we didn't have Quaxi's build script.   It may be this simply sorts itself out if Quaxi does build the next release himself in which case Peter will mainly concentrate on finishing the career editor ready to get into that build.

Thanks, if you need a mesh package to pull apart and study, just pm me anywhere :)

Noukie, please could you try this one: http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_5b_Test.rar

I just packaged up the one I was testing myself (with some previously missing dlls added) so you might find my recent file list in the menu, sorry.  :)   Anyway see if your bones behave this time.

PS In case anyone has unresolvable problems with our 0.64 series, we have the stable-but-not-teen-aware 63h QA also in the http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/ directory.

Manual install release candidate to test please, anyone, http://www.fffss.org/SimPE/SimPE_0_64_5c.rar

Sorry no career editor, just couldn't get it ready in time.

I'll give it a quick try. Thanks Inge. Oh, and I'm sorry I couldn't promise you a first born sim in my game (since she was already committed to Invisigoth), but I have a second born with your name on her.  ;D

ETA: First thing I noticed: its definitely TSS compatible. Excellent! Next thing: Theo's Color Binning Tool seems to work. Hurray!

Thanks Inge.   ;D  I'm working on some project items.  I'll get back to you later with results. 

Update here: http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/sims2/Latest-SimPE-official-release-get-it-here-v064-23-dec-2007

I'll test it now!

I don't know. I have become rather attached to Inga PE. It works for me and after all Inga came through for us :D. Before she got involved I began to think that we would not see an update until after the next expansion pack, if then. :P

Just to clarify - the release announced on the SimPE forums *is* the one Peter and I prepared, just packaged up as a self-installer by Numenor.  Obviously if you already had the rared version of the release candidate and are using that happily, then there would be no need to download Numenor's release.  But if you downloaded an earlier test than 0.64.5c, then you really do need to upgrade as things were still being fixed until then.

Drama aside, thank you Inge, Peter and Numenor for all your work.

I'm not an extensive user of SimPE, but I miss it when it's not around, or working correctly.

Thank you so much Inge.  Obviously you and Peter Have Not Failed Us^TM

I have a wee question. and my apologies if this was already answered.  I noticed that Theo's plugins were included in the release and there was a note that they would continue to be supported.  Any thoughts to supporting his Sim Surgery plugin?  Theo's plugin allows you to load a package, created in Body Shop to clone an existing sims.  It's very nifty and superior to the current method of having to create a new sim solely for the purpose of making a clone.

I've tried it with one of the previous QA release and it threw up errors.

Peter said they wished to add my tools to SimPe's repository, which is something better than the current situation of not having source control at all for them ;)

Regarding sim surgery though, I'm really not sure if it'll continue to be a separate tool, or if code will be merged with the current surgery tool, given that my version has only a few changes from the original. But since that particular version can only be found here at MATY, I'll see what I can do about the error message issues, which a priori seem to be a minor annoyance caused by obsolete method calls.

I was a bit worried when Quaxi made the announcement saying "Theo's tools are now included" because I found them in the last version and I assumed they were always sposed to be there anyway, which is why they got distributed with it.  After that I thought "oops - I hope he doesn't mind that we did that then! :o "

So what actually has the position been up until now?  And if you have a new independently maintained Sim Surgery, we should remove that from SimPE, surely?   Did Peter send you the changes he made to the other stuff?  I told him to.

Thanks for looking into it Theo.  I would have addressed my question to you directly but I was under the impression that you weren't around.  Glad to see I'm wrong :)