Modding a table (that looks like an armoire) into a functioning dresser
#11 25-05-2015 
@melismcken I don't think you can attach the .package file, you need to put it in a zip or rar first.

The black and white "looks like a newspaper" thing means the game can't find the texture, most likely because you've renamed the GMDC groups. You shouldn't rename the original mesh (the dresser) to match the new one (the armoire), but rather the other way around - unless you change the names in three more places as well (the SHPE, the MMAT and also the GMND if you want it to be recolourable). And if the mesh you're importing only has one group where the old one has four, then you'll need to delete three of the groups (preferably ones that make sense)- renaming them so they all have the same name will just confuse the game's socks off, because then it won't know what's what. But we'll have a look at it and sort things out, don't worry. Smile

Just FYI, I won't be able to be on more today and I might be scarce tomorrow as well. Just so you know I'm not ignoring you or anything if you don't get an answer right away.

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#12 26-05-2015 
Thank you so much NixNivis. And thanks for telling me you didn't forget about lil old me. Smile I finally got it to show in the game the sims can click on it and it has all the functions but now they cant complete the action of "changing clothes" or "change for work" or "plan outfit". So there is like one thing missing somewhere. It disappears from the sims action list on top left.

I will attach the file in zip form.

If you can just tell me what I did wrong I have soooo many other files that I want to make into actual dressers. I will love you forever!!!!!!

Attached File(s)
.rar  ant blue dresser showing up.rar (Size: 292.78 KB / Downloads: 441)
(This post was last modified: 26-05-2015 02:22 AM by melismcken.)

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#13 28-05-2015 
Hello again,

I know that NixNivis is unavailable at this time. But can anyone see what exactly Im doing wrong with this package? I haven't eaten or slept in a month. LOL. I am obsessed with getting this to work correctly to no avail.. Any suggestions will be so welcome.

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#14 28-05-2015 
Be patient, please Smile If all fishies here are like me (and yes, they are), they will all gladly help. But some of us (like me) have no clue what to do with a recolor, let alone with a mesh. And those who do, may not all have seen your post yet. It has been only a day, after all. Tongue

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#15 28-05-2015 
Sorry for disappearing. Unfortunately, there are only a few object modders here, so you might not always get help right this second. But you will get help eventually. Smile

Anyway. I need to know exactly what it is you've done here, because I can't quite make heads or tails of it. Part of it looks like you did clone a dresser, only the CRES is from a table and that doesn't make any sense unless you've imported the CRES from Tinhouse's armoire. Which is Not Good; the CRES is one of those things that you absolutely should not touch under any circumstances unless you know exactly what you're doing, lest it will crash people's games. Blindly messing around with the CRES is an excellent way to break your object - and it can't easily be restored, either.

Also, you need to give your new dresser new GUIDs, or it will overwrite the dresser you cloned it from. (If you don't know how to do that, I suggest having a look at this tutorial at MTS.) Problem is, giving your object new GUIDs is the very first thing you need to do when creating it, before fixing integrity, and it's too late for that now. So I'm sorry, but you're going to have to start over with this. It's too broken to work at this point. Undecided

So, clone a new dresser, and give it new GUIDs before you do anything else. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT replace the CRES! Only replace the GMDC and the texture.

Later you're going to have to import pie menu strings and pie menu functions to get your dresser to work properly, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's take one step at a time here. Smile

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#16 28-05-2015 
NixNivis!!! Thank you so much for your reply. Im sorry hope I didn't sound pushy. But I seriously have been working on making this work in every variation I can think of I have read a lot of the Mod tutorials on MOD the sims going from start to finish and from other websites. Ive been on SimPe sites and their tutorials. So again Im so sorry and I really do appreciate you taking your time out to help me with this.

Thank you too Boiling oil. You are always so helpful when I have questions here.

NixNivis the only reason that I imported the CRES is because when I did not add it in I kept getting an error saying "Parent CRES was not found, and simpe cant create joint hierarchy." I had read somewhere that it could be something within the groups in recourse tab. So I changed that set of groups to the 0x0FFFFF one. Still it gave me that error. I seriously went through every suggestion online and also tried mustluvcatz suggestion http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=44997 about checking all the files are linked. I did that like 100 times too. Cause the more I used SimPe the more I got comfortable with it.

But I will start over from scratch. And do it exactly as you say. So just GMDC and the texture image.

Now for texture image that is just the one's that are in the TXTR resource. Is that right? I will start with that one and go from there.

TY TY TY!!! Again..

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#17 28-05-2015 
Nah, you didn't sound pushy, just eager. Smile The reason I told you we aren't that many object modders here was just that I didn't want you to think that the entire forum knew exactly what you were doing, they just refused to help, 'cause that's not how it is at all. I think we are... three? Or four? object modders, and not all of us are active all the time. Right now, I think it's just me and MLC. (Of course, then there are also people who know some of it, they're just not familiar with the entire process and might not know in which dark, dusty corners to look for a problem.) So your options are a kinda limited. Wink

Anyway. The problem with importing the CRES in this case is that the table doesn't have the same joints and slots as the dresser, so when you run the dresser BHAVs, they don't work because they're looking for things that aren't there. (That's why the actions drop out of the Sims' queue - the dresser wants to send them to a routing slot that the table doesn't have.) So it's almost always better to stick with what you have, and work from there. The "parent CRES can't be found" thing is an error you can get sometimes if something went wrong in the cloning (that's not your fault, SimPE acts up that way sometimes - I've had it happen myself). Only way I know of to fix it, is to start over. The CRES can be very short-tempered, to the point where it can make your game crash on startup (been there, done that...). So you'll want to stay on its good side. Tongue

Re the texture image, yes, that's right. The easiest way to go about it is really just to export and import the image itself rather than the actual TXTR resource. (Maybe that's what you're doing already - in that case, carry on and don't mind me. Wink) If you import the resource, you'll have to rename it so it has the same name as the original TXTR (and possibly Fix TGI), otherwise the game won't be able to find it.

I want to give you HUGE props for wanting to learn how to do this yourself, and for not giving up! Big Grin Most people wouldn't even have tried, they'd just have gone "I want this thing done that way, please fix it for me" (often without the "please". Dodgy ). But you keep plugging away at it, and that's great! So keep on doing what you're doing, and keep on asking questions and wanting to learn and being eager, all right? Heart

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#18 28-05-2015 
CRES? I loveeeee messing around with the CRES. It's fun. And crashy at times. But still fun. Fun fact: I've actually replaced a CRES a time or two and fainted when it worked, lol.

And sorry, I downloaded your dresser then got busy with real life stuff and forgot all about it. Sad Bad MLC!! With the weekend, and a house full of kids, coming up I might not be around much (not that I can actually concentrate with 8 or more teens/young adults hanging around anyway) but if I see a post I'll try my best to do what I can to help.

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#19 28-05-2015 
Ok good thanks NixNivis, I am very eager to get this done. When I set my mind on something I need to get er doneeee!! Big Grin

And mustluvcatz real life what is that "THERE IS NO REAL LIFE,,, THERE IS ONLY DRESSER!"

Ok so I have done exactly what you said Nixnivis. Just TXTR and CRES.. LOL JK. Just TXTR and GMDC. I registered all the GUIDS in Object Data and I changed the group names. I did fix TGI and also added in a fix integrity in there somewhere (hope those aren't the same thing). I was attempting to add in the Pie menu strings and Pie menu functions and failed miserably. Because now the game just crashes. I love this. So if you can once again I probably need to add the pie menu strings there are 2 in semi global shopping rack globals. I don't know which one to choose. I will attach it again the new one and promise not to stalk you guys too much.

You guys are just wonderful. And also I wanted to know if I can donate to this site?

Attached File(s)
.rar  ANT BLUE DRESSER CLONE ORIGINAL.rar (Size: 484.71 KB / Downloads: 430)

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#20 28-05-2015 
Oh, I've been known to have a serious obsessive streak myself, so I'm right with you there! Big Grin

But now I'm completely confused. Confused Are you sure you attached the right file? Because when I look at the file you attached, it has the same GMDCs and TXTRs as the original dresser and also the original GUIDs, but you said you changed all of those? You do seem to have fixed integrity, though... sort of. The resource names don't look anything like how they usually look; normally, it's something like "yourfilename-[melismcken-58.5.2015-123456]_resourcename_resourcesuffix", but yours is "ANT BLUE DRESSER CLONE ORIGINAL_resourcename_resourcesuffix". (This might very well be the reason stuff is crashing, or one of the reasons anyway. You don't want to use spaces when you fix integrity, you just want letters and numbers.) Halp?

Know what? I think we should do this step by step, just so there is no confusion anywhere and we both know what the other is doing. Smile I won't be able to write it up tonight, though, it's getting late-ish here (I'm in Sweden, so my time is GMT +2) and I need to make an early start tomorrow, so I'll need to hit the sack soonish. Think you can have patience until tomorrow evening? (My evening, that is.) Or will you be bouncing off the walls? Wink

If you scroll down to the very bottom of this page, under "Other Links" Lee has a little "Donate" link for you. Smile

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Sorry, that is a members only option