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Making a Mirror Work for You

Mirrors love to show us exactly how our bodies look, but do any of them ever do anything about it?  Well, thanks to the magic of Sims object transmogrification, this one will.  We're going to turn a floor mirror into an exercise mat.  

1.  Delete unnecessary coding

We're going to get rid of the lines that identify this object as a mirror.  You don't want Sims admiring themselves in front of your exercise mat, do you?  Select BHAV.  Delete line #4107 CT-- I AM A MIRROR, #4109 CT- Admire Self, and #4110  Like/Dislike Clothes/Self.  Save, exit, and test... because if you deleted the wrong thing, you'll definitely need to start over, buddy.

2. Change Skill Rating

Now we're going to change all the lines involving skill point assignment from 11 (Charisma) to 17 (Body).  If you'd like to change to another skill, remember the numbers are:

The parameter we want to modify is either parameter 0 or parameter 1 in all the following.  Look for 11 and replace it in the following lines:  

#4097: do Practice Speech
1, 2

#4098:  Practice Speech Test
1

#4104: Finished?
4

#4105: add points
2,3,4,7,17,23

And while we're in #4105 it would also make sense to change line 12, my data Outgoing Personality> Constant 4097:4.  This line modifies how quickly the Sim can obtain Charisma points by how high his/her Outgoing rating is.  The following are our options on commands effecting personality ratings:

Let's change parameter 0 in line 12 to 3, so we'll be considering how active the Sim is instead of how outgoing.  Save, exit and test.  

3.  Change Animation

Be sure that you select and modify the listings for a2o and not the a2c headings that are at the top of the list.  As you see, you start out with the normal random speech animation elements.  I changed mine to a combination of a2o voodoo-punch, a2a attack-loop-punch, a2o repossess, and a2o slapper-first.  All pretty violent.

  4.  Change Sound

Actually, I fished around with IFF Pencil for a long, long time looking for suitably violent sounds.  When I tested my object in the game, however, I found that a2c apologizee-reject was one of those oddball animation files that has an embedded sound.  It also seems to activate the usual sounds for other animations.  Therefore we have a nice built-in karate chop noise.  I did change the "Play Sound" command in #4100 random speech.  I changed parameter 0 in line 1 to 355.  Apparently 355 is just floating around in the Sims ether and can be called at any point.  It's a sort of an "Umm, ahh," type noise.  I hope the contrast between the two will give us the Bruce Lee feel I want.

 5.  Create New Animation

Click on the tab that says "Character."  Go down to the bottom box where it says "Joint control."  Play with the levers to make the Sim move into different positions.  Select different body parts from the drop down box that originally reads "pelvis".  When you're happy with a pose, got to the tab at the top that says "Static" choose "Save new pose to library."  In the pop-up box that appears, just hit the "add" button.  Don't mess with the box where it says, "default."  The Default position is the one that the Sim was originally posed in.  It's a good idea to always start from and come back to default so that your animation will blend in seamlessly. Name your pose whatever you'd like and hit okay. 

Sim Pose creates what are called "keyframe" animations.  The computer fills in the movement required to take your Sim from one pose to the next. So you need to save poses that reflect where you'd like your Sim to end up.  Don't get too carried away, though.  I've not figured out how (if it is possible) to get more than two poses per animation that Sim Pose creates.

Okay, got your poses?  We're now ready to create your keyframe animation.  There are two basic kinds of animations Sim Pose creates: bounce and translate.  Translate takes you from one pose to another.  Bounce runs that translation backwards and forwards in a loop.  Experiment with both.  "Add keyframe" asks you to select another pose from the list of poses in your pose library and inserts it into the animation.

When you finally get something you like, hit convert to CFP.  Go over to the Animation tab and save your file as a .cmx.  Give it a name that starts with a2o-something -- and that's "o" as in object, not "0" as in zero.  Very minor, but very important.

Now if you go to the folder where you saved your cfp file, you'll see you have a .cmx file named a2o-whateveryounamedit.cmx and another file called xskill-a2o-whateveryounamedit.cfp.  This is good.  You need both of these.  You're now ready to load your new animation into The Sims.  The .cmx file goes in your animation folder and the xskills file goes in with your skins.  I don't know if this is just some personal weirdness between me and my computer, but I have to compress my .cmx file into a zip file and let SimsZip place it for me.  I have to place the skins file myself since SimsZip doesn't do that... or wash windows. 

6.  Add your new animation

If you've done everything correctly, your file will appear on Alchemist's list.  (If not cry, stomp your feet, and put your arms over your head... then go back and try again.)  Select your animation and add it just like you did the others.  Save, exit and test. 

If there are problems with your animation, The Sims will cheerfully display an ugly red thought balloon over the character's head that says "Animation Missing."  How encouraging of them.

7.  Finishing touches

Save, exit, test, and Hokey Mokey! We're done!

Room for Improvement:  

A downside of using the mirror as the base for this type of object is that your Sim does the activity standing near the object not on it.  You can modify the exercise machine if you want to have the Sim stand on the object.  However the exercise machine is a multi-tiled, multi-pieced, multi-pain in the backside to modify in my experience.  If someone could provide instructions for converting a multi-tiled object into a single-tiled one, they would be much appreciated here.

SimPose is also still a largely a mystery to me.  Is there some way to combine animations? or add multiple keyframes?  (Yes, you can!  Thanks to Richard Gardner for supplying these instructions.)  Can you import poses from The Sims?  I'd like to do animations of Sims in seated positions, but haven't been able to position them so that they line up correctly with the chairs in the game.  Please share with the group if you know how. 

Copyright 2003, Simply Enchanted.
For problems or questions regarding this web contact ktaylor@unt.edu.
Last updated: September 23, 2003