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Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#1 Old 8th Jan 2009 at 6:37 PM
Default General discussion regarding Sims 3 Tools
Hi All,

The Sims 2 has traditionally had a single monolithic tool which is used for practically all modding related tasks. I'm talking, of course, about SimPE.

Originally, however, this was not the case. Back in the early days of Sims 2 tool development, DatGen was the monolithic tool and SimPE the lightweight one, but this changed when DatGen was no longer developed.

What I would personally like to see if a core set of code that can be easily translatable into any language (I suggest picking an easy to use code base to use as a base - NOT C/C++) and then simply update the file formats and the base code, rather than producing actual DLLS.

Considering the depth and breadth of the various tool programmers here, I would imagine that within each language there will be multiple tools. Perhaps a number in C#, a number in pure C/C++ and maybe some in Python or Java. But all would share a common codebase in terms of how to actually access the files - and in some cases might have a set of DLLs that other creators can use to speed up thier own development. If this is indeed to be the case then splitting down the actual "core" functions would be very useful.

For example, a core function to read a mesh chunk into an array, or to read various string data, etc. In this way we don't build up a set of DLLs we build up a set of actual knowledge spread across all programmers - and it also makes it easier to understand for new creators.

What I would suggest is that each tool specifically state which core functions it uses, and then each programmer can see which are used in what tool and how they are utilised - ie for what function.

In the meantime, however, we first need to identify a core set of actual tools - not just "make SimPE for Sims 3"! but instead a core set of useful ones - for example, to dump the data of a particular package file, or to preview textures etc.

I'd like to take suggestions for which the developers would like to see and what functions each would have.

Regards
Delphy

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
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Retired Duck
retired moderator
#2 Old 15th Jan 2009 at 10:13 AM
I'd say that, more than anything else, we just need a consistent description of the file formats as they're deciphered. Like you say, we've got quite a range of programmers playing with sims tool creation, file parsing is bordering on trivial if you know what you're parsing for, and obviously different programming languages are better suited to different kinds of tools. If we can just keep something like the wiki up to date as far as knowledge goes, I think we'll be going swimmingly.

Also, it's a bit hard to say what tools and functions we'll need until we've at least looked at what data files we get with the game.
Test Subject
#3 Old 10th Jun 2009 at 2:22 AM
Default SimPE
Can i use SimPE to make sims in the sims 3 taller or shorter? And can i find this mod?
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#4 Old 10th Jun 2009 at 2:25 AM
SimPE has nothing to do with Sims 3.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
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