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Decoration Transformer (Designer Helper Object)

SCREENSHOTS
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Uploaded: 28th Apr 2007 at 7:28 PM
Updated: 17th Oct 2008 at 1:46 PM by -Maylin-
Background

Maxis sometimes invent some nice small objects useful for decorating around the house, but they forget to set the objects as "decorative". And those objects, and hence all (shallow) clones from them, have to occupy one whole surface despite the (usually) small sizes. When designing the interior of a nicely built house, this sometimes can be very frustrating.

(In case someone of you might not know, there exist lots of decorative slots ingame, like on top of the fireplaces, on top of some dressers in later EPs and SPs, at the two back corners of the kitchen counters ... If you don't believe me, place a 2-tile (4-tile) Maxis fireplace anywhere and drag the cheapest vase in the Plants subsection under Decorations onto it.)


Introduction

To make small objects placeable at these nice spots without making any global mods (which are always risky), I now present a helper object called Decoration Transformer. It is itself an endtable (cloned from Crazy 8 Endtable -- and preserved its shape) so that most small objects can be placed on it, but it is located under Surface > Miscellaneous. The whole operation is done in the Buy mode (and Build mode) and the Transformer itself will vanish in Live mode.

Note: I've chosen an endtable because I want to first ensure that the object is "small enough" (if using a counter then even microwaves can be put onto the fireplace... weird). Objects unable to be put on an endtable is untransformable.

Ingame description:

This endtable can transform objects placed on it to decorations so they could be placed on coffee tables and decorative slots.

Usage:
1 Place this Transformer in the Lot;
2 Move or buy an object onto this Transformer;
3 Pick up and drop down this Transformer. It will turn green if the object is transformed;
4 Now move the object to where you want to place it;
5 If it's still impossible to place the object on decorative slots use "moveObjects on" cheat so the object weight is ignored.
6 Going back to Live mode without deleting this Transformer will cause it to delete itself.


Illustrated Example (Usage Instruction)

1) Alarm clocks -- why not on coffee table?



2) Put a Decoration Transformer



3) PICK UP and then DROP DOWN the TRANSFORMER



4) The alarm clock can now be placed on coffee tables. Also in decorative slots but it's not illustrated.


Another illustrated example is in the attachment section below showing the Sunflower case. It originally can also be placed on coffee tables but not in decorative slots. Decoration Transformer can transform the Sunflower to a decorative object.


Advanced

Now let's see a dresser case. In Glamous Life Maxis introduced several short dressers on which there are 3 decorative slots, but probably they limit the "weight" of the objects put onto them to be the minimum found ingame (1 or even 0?).

BobL's static clock (unanimated) was cloned using a small Plant and hence can be put on it without any cheat or help of the Transformer; A Season's new Career Reward, the golden pen sculpture, can be placed on it WITH the help of the Transformer, but most of the other sculptures still have problems. This is probably due to the "maximum weight allowed" settings or the like in the dressers.

The solution is to activate "moveObjects on" and then place the transformed object onto the lot. With the cheat enabled the weight constraint is omitted by the game.

In fact a portion of the sculptures lie within the range of "heavy decorative objects", which are already decorative, but are too heavy to be placed onto decorative slots. "MoveObjects on" can accomplish the task without the Transformer for these objects. But the other objects (which make up the majority of all) go onto the floor below the decorative slot you wish to place if you don't use the Transformer.


Technical Information

Mesh : NONE (Referenced Maxis original)
Recolourable: NO (Red and Green colours are to indicate the process and are built in)
Modifies: "allowed heights" flag of objects and nothing else--and only individual object instances are modified, never the whole class of them
Compatibility: ALL (Tested with base game starter)
Author: Max [ID=netmicro @ www.modthesims2.com]