SimSheet (a sim-tracking program) [Now with Aspiration and LTW tracking!]

[rufio]

Update (3/7/09) - New links, but the program has not actually changed.

This isn't a mod.  I hope that doesn't make it too off-topic here.

Basically, this is a stand-alone program I'm writing for my own use, and I hope that maybe it'll be useful for other people who need a somewhat automated way of keeping notes on their sims.  Originally, I would use excell sheets (hence the name of the program) but usually I would just wind up accidentally deleting something, or losing track of where I was in my rotation, or miss someone in the update, or something like that.  The idea behind this program is that you play through your rotation, and keep some temporary notes as you go.  When you're done for the day, you open the program and enter in updates for the significant events that you want to record.  The updates are not applied until you finish your rotation and click the "apply updates" button.  Before you do that, you're free to review all the updates and delete some if you made any mistakes, without applying anything.  After you apply the updates, all the sims are aged the appropriate amount based on your rotation time and their being (or not being) vampires/zombies/etc.  You can also use the program to keep track of which houses you've already played, which sims have been taken by the social worker and are now in the adoption queue, which teens/pets have run away and have yet to return, and so forth.

Here are some screenshots:









Get version 0.5, now without having to wait 10 seconds for 4shared!
Download:  http://faiuwle.pbwiki.com/f/SimSheet.zip
Source:  http://faiuwle.pbwiki.com/f/SimSheet-src.zip

Edit 3/21/09:  Because the dlls are fucking huge, I have moved them to a separate zipfile.  If you simply want to download the latest version, just get it from the above (now refreshingly smaller) links.  If you are downloading this program for the first time, you will also need the Qt Libraries:
Get them here (4.4 MB)
Put them in the same directory as the executable.
Edit:  Changed the link so that it went to the Windows libraries instead of the Linux ones.  Durrr.

The source is provided for if you don't use Windows and/or just want to compile it on your own machine.  The program was made with Qt 4.3, so you'll need to install Qt 4.3+ from www.trolltech.com in order to compile it.

Stuff that Doesn't Work (Yet):
1.  There is a small but annoying graphical bug on the achievements page where filtering by a single sim causes the entries to be very spaced out.  I don't know what causes this.  Clicking on the filter button again should fix it.
2.  Images don't show up.  I'm not sure why - I can't seem to figure out how to get the plugins to work. We can has images!
3.  The middle two tabs are blank.  Yes, I know.  I getting to that.
4.  There is a bug with the filtering caused by an apparently unfortunate intersection of Qt with Windoze whereby data corruption occurs in a Qt class I make much use of, resulting in insta-crash when you try to add a sim or load a savefile.  However, I wrote all the filter code in linux, where it worked just fine, and it never occurred to me that it wouldn't work in Windoze.  So, the code is still there, it's just all commented out.  If you want to compile the program in an OS other than Windoze, let me know and I'll include an altered version of the source code that will include the filter when compiled on a non-Windoze OS. Shiny filters are shiny.

I'd really appreciate feedback on this, even if it's negative.  I don't have BV or FT, so I have only limited information about what kind of BV/FT-related stuff should be tracked here - if you have ideas, let me know.  If there's something else you'd like to see, let me know.

[Richief]

This is great! I'd always kept track of my Sims with spreadsheets. Thanks a lot for this. You could add a "Hobby" and "Career" field.

[Kyna]

Looks interesting.  I'm still struggling along with Sims2DB, which was last updated pre-Pets.

Did you know that SimPE can export neighbourhood character data in CSV format?  Would it be possible for you to incorporate an "import from CSV" function, so that the SimPE data could be imported, to reduce the manual data entry?

The other feature from Sims2DB that I like is the ability to print out household sheets.  I put them in rotation order, make notes all over them (of plans for individual sims), and I find it handy in my larger neighbourhoods to have a paper copy as I don't have to alt-tab to another program to work out which household I want to play next and what I was planning to do with them.

[rufio]

Richief - there's actually a whole career tab, which I intend to also include businesses and basically a career history for whichever sim is selected on the first tab.  But that's not to come for a while, unfortunately.  Hobbies and secondary Aspirations (I know it's in the dialog, but it doesn't really work yet) are due for being added pretty soon, if I can remember to.

Kyna - I've been told that yes, but I looked at some of those outputs and there seems to be a lot of stuff in there that SimSheet just doesn't care about, and it looked like a bit of work to go through and figure out where the stuff that would be useful actually is.  If you've got some kind of schema for how SimPE organizes these outputs, I might be able to do that, though.  My SimPE unfortunately hasn't worked since I installed Seasons, so I can't do experiments with it.

[Kyna]

You could try asking Quaxi or Inge how the CSV output is organised.

I know when Pegasys was developing Sims2DB she discussed the CSV output with Quaxi.  IIRC, he added the CSV output to SimPE at her request, so that she could use it for Sims2DB.

[Li'l Brudder]

What are you writing SimSheet in, rufio?  Last I checked, CSV does give the data a "tag" which should allow your program to search and find it.  It shouldn't be too hard to write a CSV-searching method and then use it to import the CSV's usable data.  Then again, it was a long time since I've looked at the CSV sheet and I may be talking through my ass.

ETA: I've actually been thinking a lot about this, too.  What if one were to write a program that reads the character files and updates automatically, instead of you feeding it CSV files?  It'd only be a matter of decoding the character files, but if SimPE can do it, then so can you.  Naturally, you'd want to keep the character files read-only (or would you?) and only display the new data.  It'd probably be not too hard to have it automatically find important data, too.  Searching for changes, and what not.

[rufio]

Kyna - yeah, that would be cool.  I'm not really that involved in this community, though - how do I get in touch with them?

Brudder - it's in C++.  I'm not sure what you mean about the CSV, though - CSV is formatted like "Field One,Field Two,Field Three" etc.  If I don't know what the fields are supposed to be, it's hard to extract and use them.

[Li'l Brudder]

Yep, they changed it.  But anyway, the fields probably stay the same for each sim.  The easiest way I found to figure out what CSV fields meant was just exporting the sim data to CSV and reading it, applying what I knew to what it said.  It'd probably involve you running back and forth between the game and excel to figure it out, but it's certainly plausible.

Also, to make the program compatible for others without EPs, you could have them check a box for which EPs they have and then have it search for those fields which were added with certain EPs, specifically.

You might want to talk to jfade about this, too.  He's currently away, but he knows all sorts of stuff about how to handle TS2 files.

[Kyna]

To contact Quaxi or Inge, you could try http://sims.ambertation.de/ which is the SimPE home page.  Ask on the forum over there, or send a PM.

Or you could send Inge a PM here at MATY.

BTW, if SimPE hasn't worked for you since Seasons and you've updated to the most recent version, you can report your issues with SimPE at the SimPE forum.

EDIT: to add to what Li'l Brudder said about EP compatibility, I believe that one of the fields exported in SimPE's CSV is a field that states which EP the sim was last saved in (i.e. which format that particular sim's character file is in).  Each EP adds new data fields to the sim's character file - which is one of the reasons why SimPE is updated after each EP.

[rufio]

ETA: I've actually been thinking a lot about this, too.  What if one were to write a program that reads the character files and updates automatically, instead of you feeding it CSV files?  It'd only be a matter of decoding the character files, but if SimPE can do it, then so can you.  Naturally, you'd want to keep the character files read-only (or would you?) and only display the new data.  It'd probably be not too hard to have it automatically find important data, too.  Searching for changes, and what not.

That might be an interesting idea, too.  I've looked at some of the package file formats on the wiki, and they seem fairly straightforward, but I don't know anything about the compression algorithms so I'm not sure I could actually do that.  Jfade is working on some sort of package editor though (he actually asked if I would help out with it when I posted an earlier version of this on another forum, but I've been so busy trying to figure out that filter issue that I haven't done much for it) so maybe it could leach off of that code a bit.  Java's slightly different, but not that different.

Also, to make the program compatible for others without EPs, you could have them check a box for which EPs they have and then have it search for those fields which were added with certain EPs, specifically.

Yeah, that's kind of on my list too, but I want to wait until I get most of the EP-specific stuff into it so that I can do that whole system at once and not have to keep adding little bits of stuff as I go.  Since my next planned big update is not going to be EP-specific stuff, I'll probably do that then.

Kyna, thanks for the info.

BTW, if SimPE hasn't worked for you since Seasons and you've updated to the most recent version, you can report your issues with SimPE at the SimPE forum.

Thanks, I'll try that.  I'm not sure how helpful it will be to them though, since my issue is basically "it crashes on startup".

[Li'l Brudder]

That is partially why I suggested you talk to jfade. 

[Inge]

This is the sort of thing that ambivalently could be a good SimPE plugin.  Pro - the data can be read directly.  Con - one more thing you can't do without taking a holiday while SimPE loads lol!

[rufio]

I am not really sure how to make things into plugins, and as SimPE doesn't work for me, I would not personally find it very helpful.  And if we can get it to read data directly from the package files by frankensteining together some code from actual package editors, it would be the same thing, right?  I sent a PM to quaxi to ask about the CSV file format, though, unless you know how it works, Inge?

[Inge]

How are you obtaining the data currently?

[J. M. Pescado]

CSV isn't a "format", it's just a text file with entries seperated by commas.

[rufio]

Inge, currently you have to enter the data for individual sims using the Add Sim dialog (there's a picture of the Edit Sim dialog above, it's essentially the same).  There's no way (yet) to import a list of sims from a neighborhood package or anything like that.

JM, I know what CSV is.  What I mean by "format" is that it matters if the CSV file is written as "Name,Age,Aspiration,Career" or "Name,Aspiration,Age,Career" or any one of the other bazillion possibilities.

[Inge]

I'll see if Peter can find out where it's done and publish the list of columns.

Rufio:  I have just looked at the CSV output and the labels are included in each field - eg ;voicetype=2;doofus=false; (not the way it's usually done, but there is no excuse for complaining you can't tell what the data represents)

[Roux]

Rufio, I would love to use this; however, I have TwoJeffs' Age Duration Hack in my game. There are other age-adjusting hacks out there, like Inge's Age Group Tweak. The problem for me is that the age/life stage fields are hard-coded in your program, and I need flexibility. My sims don't always have 29 days as adults; they usually have over 30, but their elder life stage is shorter.

I like the way age auto-advances in your program, but would it be possible to make it adjustable per sim? Off the top of my head (and I'm not a programmer, so bear with me), I'm thinking that the life stage and age fields could be separated. Then have each life stage default to the Eaxis default number of days left upon transition, but allow the user to change that value if needed. What do you think?

[rufio]

Inge - that's great, but it doesn't really help me, since I don't have access to any of those CSV files or any means to generate them - I won't know, for example, if it's going to be "aspiration=fortune" or "Aspiration=fortune" or "aspiration=2" or "aspiration=ft" or what.  I'd have to guess, and then the program would be filled with all kinds of bugs that I can't test.

Roux - I can definitely put in user-configurable lifestage lengths.  If you don't mind compiling the program from scratch, you can actually do it without that though - in the source, go to the const.h file, you can change the values of the group that begins with "// Age Transitions" - for example, if you want elderhood to begin 10 days after it does in the game, change "const int ELDER = 58" to "const int ELDER = 68".  Then compile the program and it'll have your specifications.

[Inge]

Here is the CSV output from one of my hoods.

I am a bit worried that you're not able to run SimPE though.  Have you got the latest version?  Has .Net 2 stopped running on your system?

[rufio]

Thanks, Inge.  I'll see what I can do with that.  It seems to be counting the age differently from me, though - the first sim is an adult at age 24, but I'm pretty sure the age transition happens at 29.  Or is that counting the actual days played, and (for example) not the days skipped from Elixer use, or days skipped because they went to college early?

ETA: Oh I see, it's actually a small dog.  I'll just presuppose that the age number works the same way and see how it goes.

Roux - actually, I can only let you change the lifestage lengths globally - keeping track of individual age transition times for different sims (if that's what you're asking about?) would be kind of nightmarish.  Would changing things globally help any?

[Inge]

The number of days old they are is not directly related to lifestage.  That's an arbitrary number in a special field.

Ages (Persondata 3A)
Baby      1      Constant Value 0x0110:0x05
Todd      2      Constant Value 0x0110:0x00
Child      3      Constant Value 0x0110:0x01
Teen      10      Constant Value 0x0110:0x02
YA      13      Constant Value 0x0110:0x03 (and   my persondata 0x00AF Equals? Literal Value 0x0001)
Adult      13      Constant Value 0x0110:0x03
Elder      33      Constant Value 0x0110:0x04

Ages are tested as "equals" these values

[rufio]

Ok, but where is the information about how many days away from transition they are, etc.?  I'm looking at where it says "LifeSection=Adult;Age=24;"

[Inge]

There is another field for that: Stack Object's person data 0x005B (Age Days Left).  Is the CSV not offering that to you?  Unfortunately that's the only field that is aware of how the user has set their ageing BCONs or whether the sim had some elixir.

[rufio]

Yeah, I'm not seeing that anywhere.  Do you have any examples from ordinary playable sims though, with the information from the game of what their age actually is?