More Awesome Than You!

The Apartment Life release candidate SimPE is now at the QA thread and at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/simpe/SimPe_0_71_23-QA.7z
I would be very grateful if everyone could give it a lastminute run so we can release it shortly.

At this stage we're only interested in actual bugs and wrongnesses (related to what has been updated for AL compatibility).  We can carry on developing other aspects of it after this release.

I'm going to try it, but I have that Store expansion, and it keeps giving me the warning that I have a newer version.
 :-\

lol!  Oh yes that...  It's actually perfectly safe to ignore it in this case.

I wish I knew how I got it, it was in my non-sims email, but also at the online store for a penny. Weird, but its got a cute store set. I opened up both SimPE and Wiz, the AL stuff I ran through object workshop seemed to work just fine. That's about my limit, except switching adult meshes to elders. I'm going to run the scans now, maybe along the way I'll connect with my custom skins?

Inge, I clicked on that link and I get Simpe .68, I had to go to the QA Forum to get the right version.

What store set? she asked higjacking the thread.

The one I seem to be the only having. LOL! Inge is the first person who seems to know what I mean. If you go to the EA store, there is a store "expansion pack" for 1 cent. I got mine in my email, but I don't know how since my other email is registered with EA. I think you will find it if you type in Sims2 Store, although you may have to put ep too.

Dea, yes that's what you were meant to do.  The new SimPE version doesn't appear on the main page until after the 12th hour (ie after 11th hour QA testing)  :)

I ran scans last night, and they all worked well too.

Awesome.  I came here today to ask how to make sim PE work merging neighborhoods with AL.  I just finished downloading, and I'll try it either tonight or tomorrow.


Edit to add:


Well it didn't work.  I was trying to do   this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=4480.0).
I was able to add all the Maxis made neighborhoods as downtowns + tutorial + Beacon Falls, except for Bella(whatever that came with apartment life).  I also couldn't add SeaGull Island either.  When I opened the files in SimPE it didn't show any sims or relations they were all just listed as unknown and it gave me this error msg.   
This is just a Warning. It is supposed to keep you informed about a Problem. Most of the time this is not a Bug!

The Sim with GUID 0x00000000 (inst=0x0000) exists more than once. This could result in  Problems during the Gameplay!

Windows Version:
WindowsXP

.NET Version:
2.0.50727.42

I tried to do the steps to add those neighborhoods as downtowns as well.  But when I got to the part to tell the game to add the neighborhood as a downtown, it didn't find a nightlife template, like it did with all the others.  It just automatically took me to create a custom downtown.  I followed the same steps as when making the others, and it worked for each of those, but not these 2 neighborhoods.  What was different?

I went to make a recolour of one of the paintings that came with AL (The "How Elegant. . ." one) and instead of the usual package with resources, SimPE created a completely empty package. Is this not supposed to be recolorable? Asking because usually paintings are. Also couldn't recolor the Flatiron Building painting (same thing, getting an empty package.)

Fourcats, you have listed two symptoms I would expect you to have if you were trying to use the pre-Apartments version of SimPE.  I fear you may either have downloaded or run the wrong version by mistake.

Wyvern, my understanding is that paintings are usually *not* recolourable, as Maxis designed them.  Do you have the CEP installed?

Ok... who killed the SimPE site?  >:(

This is the one I downloaded.
SimPe_0_71_23-QA
Is that the one I should have?
I installed it and still have the install files.  Should I have removed the old one first, or does this one install overtop the old?
Maybe I have more than one version installed at a time?  And was running the wrong one?

You should always install into a fresh folder, and run it by clicking on SimPE.exe in the new folder you have just installed.  I have in the past stupidly run simpe by clicking a shortcut, and ended up running the old one.

Yes, I have the CEP installed. Having no difficulty creating recolours for most AL objects, just the paintings I mentioned. Perhaps the CEP needs to be updated? (Sorry I'm not awesome enough to know if this is a CEP or a SimPE issue.)

I can clone the paintings, and when I do so I get the usual package; it's just when I go to create a recolour in Object Workshop I get an empty container with no resources at all.



Edit: spelling

I don't think the CEP has yet been updated for Apartment Life, so it's worth exploring that issue.  This is typically what you would expect to experience when trying to make a recolour package for a non-recolourable object, if CEP is not installed or is not handling that object.

This is probably what I had done.  I'll delete all the old files, including the shortcuts.  Reinstall and try again.

Edit:
It worked.  It's done.  Now I'm all merged, with 10 downtowns.

oh, yeah, and . .
Thanks!  This is Great! ;) :D

Just successfully made some eyes into defaults. Yayz. It all seems to work as advertised, Inge!

I thought Inge was only asking for bugs and wrongness in this thread, not 'yay this is working' comments?  I've done all sorts of things with the new build that have worked just fine.

Oh, bog off Maxon. It isn't like this thread is innundated with replies. At least mine was sort-of useful, yours was just whiny. Inge won't pat you on the head for being a good little toad, y'know.

I am proud I have made default eyes. I haven't ever done them before. So nyah. :P

Anybody know what happened to the SimPE site?

I'm sorry Emma if you thought that was meant to be a criticism of you personally - it wasn't meant to be. 

So I guess I wont mention that it seems to be loading faster than it has in the past.  Oh wait I just did.

Actually, "it's working fine" replies are very valuable.  How else will I know if I have 100 testers, 98 of them with no complaints, or only 2 testers both of whom are finding it unusable for their tasks?

I'm getting an error in editing OBJf. I reported it in QA thread, now that the forum is back up online.

Yea, Dea, I noticed it loading a lot faster too.

Anyone else getting an error in OBJfs?  I can't reproduce it.

Inge, I installed that (actually just replaced all the files with the files from archive).
I created some recolors. But was very angry that there were no paths for K&B stuff and IKEA. I had to determine them all in the FILETABLE. >:(
Also the AL objects folder was marked as Unused for some odd reason.

May be this is because the installation was executed in the incorrect way

this isn't an error per-se, but I got massive CPU and resources drain with simpe after only a couple of minutes open and had to close it out and not use it - using XP, 2 GB ram, 2.8 GHz CPU within a couple of minutes it was up to 60% CPU usage minimum even when idling and was using 567k in memory resources (to provide a benchmark there...I have all EPs and all SPs installed, and they have to be running for at least a couple of hours before they'll hit 300-350k in memory resources...I've never had anything go as high as 567k).

kiki
for me too
I opened two files in SimPe and my PC was like nearly blowing up.
It works very slow.

Ailias yes you installed incorrectly, you must start from a fresh folder.

System throttle: Yes, but can be made bearable by not including your downloads folder in the filetable - this helped me immensely!   

There is rarely any need to include Downloads in filetable.  Hackers may need to do so for the purposes of cross-referencing in simantics, but I would advise them to only include only their own folder hierarchy, not the whole of Downloads.  They can use packages.txt which means only the PJSE plugins will include those and SimPE won't get bogged down with their graphical resources.

If the problem is that you want to be able to clone downloads and need them showing in objects workshop then you can do just as well by copying the file manually, rename it, give it new GUIDs and Fix Integrity.  No need to take it through OW at all.

I didn't have that set as an option before, so that is something that was put in as a standard option checked in this QA version? because normally I just do it how you state, no downloads folder referencing.

Which version did you upgrade from, that you found more satisfactory in this respect?  There was some size and speed deterioration as some better safeguards were added after 0.68, but we managed to claw back a lot of that in recent builds.

I upgraded from the K&BI one - the last "full" release (coz you guys skipped IKEA stuff, didn't you seeing as though it was released so close to AL?)

No we didn't skip IKEA, we created an IKEA release, just Quaxi didn't release it.  This time we're going to release anyway, and be damned :)

..not only damned, but worshipped by us grateful simmers.  :)

0.72.0 is now at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/simpe/SimPe_0_72_00.7z

Remember it wants its own new fresh folder, not a load of old borked config files to struggle with.

I would like to help test if the latest version of simPE works, but it might kill my laptop: so far it's taken over fifteen minutes to load and works very slowly, one out of three times and doesn't work the rest of the time. That is, it starts loading then freezes and I have to restart the laptop. Previous vrsions of simPE have worked at a reasonable rate on the same laptop, for comparison.

Do you mean 0.72.0 is suddenly worse than 0.71.26?  And you're installing and starting it exactly the same way with the same game configuration?

Anyway this is the release now, rather than a test version, so any problems with it can you please make out a bug report?

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. Both 0.71.26 AND 0.72.0 crashed.

However, I think I'm maybe installing it wrongly.

EDIT: I've found out I was making  stupid mistake. However, I seem to be lacking the correct file to install it. Am I meant to be installign from  a file called SimPE.exe? If so, I don't seem to have downloaded that particular file. Please don't anyone laugh too loudly at my lack of computer expertise.

I can't download it.  When I try, I'm taken to Version 0.68.

You have to download it from the link in Inge's message above, not from the SimPe site.

Cat, you install it just by un7zing it.  It will make its own folder.  Go into the folder and double-click SimPE.exe.  That will load SimPE.

I've been using 0.71 "by accident" since I saw where you said Turn-Ons/Offs were borked in 0.68, so I went and found it and d/led it a couple days ago. It's definitely faster than 0.66, which is what I'd been using up until then. I just d/led 0.72 and I think 0.71 loaded even faster than .72 (if that's possible) but both are faster to load than 0.66. The Neighbourhood Browser is faster. I've only used it to edit Sims in a new neighbourhood (personality/traits/the usual) and it's working fine, changes are sticking, etc.

Also - I ran it for about an hour last night and 0.71 did not eat up my CPU resources.

Thanks for the positive feedback :D

I'm having a problem with this and will do my best to describe it.  When I extract it using ZipGenius, it is only visible to ZipGenius; it's invisible to Windows and I cannot access it.  Make any sense?  :-\

Edited 'cause I can't type (lol).

What is?  The entire folder?  Or just the executable? 

Never mind anyway.  Numenor has now made us a nice cosy rar'ed autoinstaller just like the good old days.  That will be available in a few hours once Peter gets home and uploads it to SourceForge.

Unfortunately I don't have a file called simPE.exe after un7zing it. There is a file called simPE but this opens the new version of the program then crashes. I also got a more technologically able friend to assist and they agreed with me.

Well you'll need to seek out a better un7zer for next time you need it.  Fortunately you can now get
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/simpe/SimPE_072b_Setup.exe

You're not extracting the whole rar/zip, you're just viewing the contents of that rar/zip file.

When you double-click the SimPe file within ZipGenius, the executable is extracted alone into a temporary folder. Attempting to execute that file results in a crash, due to the lack of the remaining files.

Thanks to Inge, you don't have to worry about this anymore. ;)

I did extract everything in the zip, to C:\Program Files, etc.  When I then opened Program Files, it wasn't there; Windoze didn't see it.  I had to use another program to see where it was, but I couldn't actually access the folder (which got named "SimPe_0_72_00-with" by ZipGenius.)  Bizarre, eh?

I realize it doesn't apply to SimPE anymore, but I hope I described my problem better this time -- for future reference, anyway.  ;D

Thanks to Inge and Numenor for getting an auto-installer up!  :)

I'm still having problems. Despite doing everything correctly, simPE (version 0_72_00) works at a snail's pace. Any suggestions? Given that the previous edition for ikea stuff worked at a sensible pace, I hope it's not the computer specs that are at fault.

I haven't noticed any significant difference in speed between 0.70 and 0.72

Mine's creeping along too.

Compared with which version?  Don't forget every time a new EP is installed there is another 200Mb or more of data for SimPE to handle and store.  As well as any cc you have added depending on your configuration. Do what lots of other people have found helpful - ensure Downloads is not in your filetable and also untick all but basegame and your latest EP.   This is the last time I am gonna type this as it's giving me RSI and I have posted it on the SimPE site as a FAQ now :)

I believe I had the last QA version before the official release.  Um, if I untick everything but the latest EP, doesn't that mean SimPE won't be able to find resources that came with the other EP's?  And my Downloads are already excluded from the file table.

Incidentally, any particular reason why the EP's/SP's I don't have are grayed out and I can't untick them?

Under some rare circumstances it might work out that way (in which case tick on the relevant EP temporarily), but mostly you will find everything you need, for object making, and also for skinning if you start the normal way by making the outfit clone in bodyshop.
Make a "workshop" folder and add that into your filetable, then you can throw into it any user resources you are expecting to want to reference for your current work.

As to the permagray boxes, I asked Quaxi about that once and he was adamant that was the right thing to do.

Why do the new (the roomies and such that came with AL) have Mr Potato head?  Also, I was going to use the Alt Sim Surgery to make them over, but they don't appear on this list.  ???

I refuse to type the answer to this question one more time  :D

Here, Inge-have some tea. Sugar?

Thank you Emma!
/me kicks off shoes and relaxes

I just dropped the folder into my program files and it works fine. I removed the old folder first, of course.


Ok, just because I said that, I got little red x's next to everything. I'm wondering if I didn't let it load though, so I'm trying Wizards now.

In order for me to be sure where the problem is occurring, please right-click on the link you are using and copy shortcut and paste it here.  I suspect Sourceforge is diverting you to the default (which Quaxi never gave Peter access to change) which is a bit naughty of it, but to be totally sure I need to see you're not getting the wrong link from somewhere in the first place.

You can greatly improve speed and RAMs-usage by stripping down all the unnecessary files. If you're like me, for instance, you don't need SimPE to ALWAYS load every single texture from the base game and up, chewing up 1.4 GBs of RAM in the process, when all I ever do is make BHAV edits. None of those resources are NECESSARY unless you're using them, but SimPE will load every last piece of junk and chew up more RAMs than the game itself does.

Peter and I are plotting a "hackersmode" commandline switch, which will make SimPE totally refuse to open any files in the 3D folders.  So the only thing that it will know about scenegraph resources will be the references in the STR# files :D

Thanks Inge, it appears that the program just wanted me to reboot my PC.  It's working fine now.  D'oh.

/me facepalms.

Vers 0.72.1.33855, AL is checked on filetable.

Strange thing is to even see them in the neighborhood viewer, you have to check Uneditable.  Even then they won't have a picture, just their name and details.  Do these roomies have special coding attached to them or am I missing something obvious?

My room mates are listed as Townies.

This is what I mean:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/Shodan_AI/Sims/missingpic.jpg)

I was hoping to use the alt sim surgery and replace the ugly roomies with some new dna that I personally didn't make. For a bit more randomness in their appearance.

That doesn't mean he's ineditable, and it can apply to any sim anyway - all the stuff about roomies is a red herring.  Ineditable means you had to tick the ineditable box before he was listed at all.  This applies to sims in family 0.

You should be able to edit the sim even without seeing his thumbnail.  It's not the thumbnail you're editing, after all, the game will generate that as needed for the game.  If there is anywhere in SimPE that is refusing to deal with a sim due to a missing thumbnail, then please post a bug report at the simpe forum.  If it is in a 3rd party plugin, you need to discuss with the plugin author about lifting any restrictions he may have for non-thumbnailed sims.

Ok, thanks. I wasn't sure if making any modifications to them would corrupt the file.

Edit: Thanks, that was the problem.  No-one knew these new sims that came with AL, mainly due to their appearances.  Now the fun really begins  :)

It appears my virus software (AVG 8.0) was causing the problems with simPE. At any rate, it works fine with the virus software uninstalled. Sorry for bothering you.

That's very useful information, thank you Cat.  It means that if anyone else is experiencing similar I can ask them about that.