More Awesome Than You!

Hi everyone! A while back I asked for some opinions at N99 about a program I was thinking of making, a tool to make collections outside of the game. Well, I've been working on it off and on for about a month and a half now, and I finally have something I consider ready for public testing. :)

Here's a preview image: http://images.djssims.com/CollectionMaker.JPG

Once you try it, it will hopefully make a lot more sense. :)     

Basically, it can do all of this:

* Make new collections
* Edit existing collections
* Add objects to collections individually or batch add them by picking a folder
* Back up existing collections
* Change collections from Residential to Community and vice versa.

I did want to have walls and floors as options available for you to add to collections that way. However, there's something about the way the game references them that I can't figure out. I've asked around and no one seems to know, so I'm trying to contact someone specifically who does know, but they're rather elusive at this point so it's hard for me to catch them. (If anyone knows how the game references walls and floors in 3IDR files, please let me know! :) )

However, you should be able to continue to add things to collections you've made with the program in the game and then continue to edit them with the program. (If a collection does have walls and floors in it, the program will retain that information.)

Thanks in advance! :)

jfade

Get the program here: http://www.djssims.com/index.php?category=21

EDIT (7/12/06): To add newer links, update images and some of the info, blah blah blah.

Well, I've been using this for awhile (Yay for Yahoo!!), and I've absolutely loved it.  I just tried the latest version, I made a bath collection of a folder and it worked perfectly.  Thanks so much for this.  :-*

umm..what's the difference between the installer and non installer versions? And if you are willing to have totally unawesome peoples test this for how idiot proof it is , well, here I am! ;D

Some people encountered problems with the installer (though it works for most, so not sure there), so you can just unzip the Non-Installer version to a folder of its own on your desktop or wherever and it will work from there as well. :)

Pardon, my ignorance is showing, I thought it might have had something to do with clean installer, off to go play with this now...

Whoa.  Let me test my understanding...if you make a collection Community or Residential, does that merely mean it will show up when you're on one type of lot versus the other, or does it mean everything in the collection is enabled for that type of lot?

Correct :), that's why the Maxis collections normally have two packages, one for residential items and the other for community items.

As for the program itself, I've tried the installer without problems, and I must say the program is pretty much straightforward and easy to use, even the provided icons were more that I could ask for :) Well done!

I still didn't examined the list entirely, but it seems that it contains the default Maxis objects only, so any custom object should be added using the "Choose object..." and the "Choose directory..." buttons, is that right?

Thanks, but all the credit for the icons goes to JadeElliot, I'm glad she let me include them. :D
Basically, yeah, when you edit collections it won't show the names, though I am going to add something that will keep track of the names and GUIDs of things you add plus the GUIDs and names of maxis objects so that it will be able to give a name to things when you go to edit a collection so long as you've added them to a collection once before. But I'm not sure if I'll include that in this version before release or not, but at any rate, it'll be there eventually. :)

Considering that virtually all custom content comes with a TextList resource, it shouldn't be too difficult to extract or change the descriptions. Of course you decide what's in the program; in my opinion, that is a welcome addition :).

However, I understand why the list should include only the standard Maxis objects, otherwise users with very large download folders ;) would suffer a delay while the program was scanning their downloads for the first time.

The ability to select package files and directories is great, and it even may encourage people to organize their downloads ;D

I downloaded your programm yesterday and what shall i say - it´s working just great !!  ;D

I just wished i had found this 2 weeks earlier ..  ::)

Thank you so much for sharing  - love it !  :-*

Ahh, but it wasn't released two weeks ago - you found it on the ground floor.  ;D

I added another build, this one adds a feature that was requested to sort the collections so that they show in alphabetical order in the game. :) After this, it's time for rewording of some things, and I'll release it! Thanks for the testing so far everyone! :)

Thank you so much for this!  :-* It makes building and decorating so much more easier!  :-*

Edited: When I hit the Alphabet button it takes about a minute than I get this error message:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v451/poppstar/Fehler1.jpg)

When I hit the details button I see this:

Informationen über das Aufrufen von JIT-Debuggen
finden Sie am Ende dieser Meldung, anstatt in diesem Dialogfeld.

************** Ausnametext **************
System.IO.EndOfStreamException: Über das Ende des Streams hinaus konnte nicht gelesen werden.
   at Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.FileGet(Int32 FileNumber, Byte& Value, Int64 RecordNumber)
   at Project1.frmMain.FindResource(String PackagePath)
   at Project1.frmMain.cmdAlphaSort_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Geladene Assemblys **************
mscorlib
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/microsoft.net/framework/v1.1.4322/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
Sims2CollectionMaker
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.2321.33381
    Win32-Version: 1.0.2321.33381
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Programme/Sims%202%20Collection%20Maker/Sims2CollectionMaker.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly-Version: 7.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 7.10.3052.4
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/microsoft.visualbasic/7.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/microsoft.visualbasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.DirectoryServices
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.directoryservices/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.directoryservices.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility
    Assembly-Version: 7.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 7.10.3077
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Programme/Sims%202%20Collection%20Maker/Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility.DLL
----------------------------------------
mscorlib.resources
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.535
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/mscorlib.resources/1.0.5000.0_de_b77a5c561934e089/mscorlib.resources.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms.resources
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32-Version: 1.1.4322.535
    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms.resources/1.0.5000.0_de_b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.resources.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT-Debuggen **************
Um das JIT-Debuggen (Just-In-Time) zu aktivieren, muss in der
Konfigurationsdatei der Anwendung oder des Computers
(machine.config) der jitDebugging-Wert im Abschnitt system.windows.forms festgelegt werden.
Die Anwendung muss mit aktiviertem Debuggen kompiliert werden.

Zum Beispiel:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

Wenn das JIT-Debuggen aktiviert ist, werden alle nicht behandelten
Ausnahmen an den JIT-Debugger gesendet, der auf dem
Computer registriert ist, und nicht von diesem Dialogfeld behandelt.


I have deinstalled and reinstalled your program to no avail. If I hit that ABC Button... error message..
I hope this can be fixed  :-\

this is a fantastic development, thank you so much !  i notice that collections i've made using the batch add feature end up with aprox. only 50% of the files showing.  these are all object files, not floors, walls,  hair, clothing etc. & the folders chosen did not have sub folders, so i can't figure out why all objects are not being added.

Will test this out later... it should be much easier for me to make collections using my nice organized downloads directory than it would be in the game.

Thanks everyone. :)

Tracy, if it can't find the object's GUID, the object will not be added. In my tests, it has picked up everything though, and hasn't had a problem. Try opening the files that aren't being picked up in the list in SimPE and see if they have an OBJD resource. If they do, they are objects and should be getting picked up (and I'd like a link to the site where you got them and, more specifically, the name of the file I'm looking for :) ) but if they don't, that's why it's not adding them. :)

americancindy, I was looking into this but I'm not sure what would cause this. If you don't mind, perhaps you could zip up your collections and email them to me so I can see which file is causing the problem, and why?

jfade#447@comcast.net (remove the # Sign)

Thanks in advance! :)

Just sent my collections folder to you.. Hopefully you will find out what is going on! :-*

i don't use simpe for anything other than recategorizing clothing so i don't know my way around it much - but the objects that aren't showing in the collections are definitely objects,  they work in the game and they show in collections i make in-game, just not with your prog.  opening a sample of them in simpe they have object data, object function, guids, original guids & fallback guids etc etc.  there's so many of them that there's no way i can list them all for you & figure out what sites they came from - no time for that unfortunately.  some of cashcraft's victorian objects are no-shows.  those are from tsr. but it's not just hers, there's many others.   

Hmm, so they don't show up when you used the batch add function, but if you try to add them individually, what happens? I'll check and make sure there's nothing wrong with the scanning thing, and if there is I'll fix it. :)

I tested this out some this weekend...quite spiffy :)

Is there a way, though, to add Maxis objects to a collection with this tool? I'd like to group recolors as well as new objects. I tried pulling in some recolors to see if it would pick up what object it was a recolor in, but no go.

This looks awesome!

I was just wondering yesterday as I was playing the game (or rather, while I was idly waiting for the game to load an object onto a lot -- that arrow-into-an-hourglass thing gets really annoying after a while! :D) if there was a way I'd be able to put, say, the hacked objects I've downloaded into a collection without going through EVERY SINGLE ONE IN THE GAME. Cuz sometimes I forget which one is which, and you have to actually CLICK on the thumbnail to get the description, to see if that's even what I'm looking for or not!

I shall test this out right away, but it looks like everyone's given it a thumbs up, so I don't anticipate any problems.

Thanks so much! This is teh awesomez!

Eventually, I'd like to have the ability to choose maxis objects based on a list of objects that is sortable by each expansion, but I'd have to get the GUID from each Maxis object, and that's something I don't have time to do right at this moment, but it is on my to do list. :)

I have other little improvements I want to make to the program as well, but I do want to at least get this first version out there, because it's been in testing for quite a while, and it does work. Plus, I'd like to get away from working on this for a bit and work on some other projects that have been on the backburner for a while.

But, in short, I will add that feature, yeah. :)

Cool :) Even as it is, it's a great tool and very handy. Works great for me :)

yah, individually everything adde & showed up fine, but the batch was hit & miss - but it's working fine now, seems to be 100% perfect.  i figure it was my system, it was messy & i remembered windows crashed a few weeks ago & i hadn't bothered rebooting < / idiot > so i rebooted, did a big system clean up including the registry, defragged, then i deleted all my thumbnails & the groups.cache file.  when i made new collections this afternoon they turned out fine.

Another question/suggestion. Is it possible to make it so you can select more than one item with the individual item button? For example, I wanted to add several new items to an existing collection, and it would have been a lot easier to select those five or six items at once than to click and browse five or six times. I ended up going the batch route and it didn't throw up, but I haven't checked to see if the collection is okay in the game yet.

Great tool! Loving it.  My only issues have already been mentioned, i.e.; wanting recolors to show up, and being able to select more than one object at once.  Otherwise this has been a tool dropped from the gods :D

Sorry, should've replied to this when I first saw it then got distracted. :o


Well, so far as I know, with the way I've got it set up there's no way to have it select more than one file with the Common Dialog control at a time. Sorry. :(


LOL, thanks. :D I too think it would be nice to have the recolors in collections as well, but I guess unless Maxis changes the way the collections work we won't be able to. :-\

Okey dokey, works for me. And anytime we can blame Maxis for something, I'm happy :D

"Dropped from the gods" is right. You truly are to be worshipped  ;D

Hi Jfade, I just downloaded your Collections Creator and I think it is a -fantastic- idea!  I don't know how long I've been frustrated with the way Maxis handles collections.

There's just one hitch, and this has nothing to do with how the program functions. It works just fine for me. The problem is, being significantly less awesome than most here, I have no idea what these files -are-.  I'm a skinner and clothing-maker, not a hard-core modder.  So when I look at "0043545ffffakka.package" my mind goes... "okay wtf IS that, and how do I know if I want to add it to this collection?" LOL!

(Yeah, yeah, okay. You can poke me with pointy sticks now! :P)

The point I'm making is that the "regular joe" trying to use this program needs some hint what the .package files actually are--i.e., a name, or picture, or description of the object needs to pop up when they click or right-click on the different items. Otherwise they're just going to stare at it in confusion and post really fucking stupid questions many support requests. Know what I mean?

But yeah, the existing program functions just fine. I'm just too dumb to know what I'm doing!  :D

Coyote, the best way to handle this is when you initially d/l custom content.  The way that I do it is to download a set or something, go into Windows Explorer (or the file manager of your choice) and check the names of everything.  If they have nonsense number names, I look at them with Clean Installer or SimPE to see what exactly they are, and then I rename them and put them in folders by category.

C

1) This is not a good thing.
2) This is not jfade's fault.

First of all, I am going to break MATY rules and say thank you. I've been using this program for awhile now and it has saved me so much time and frustration that if you were nearby, I'd kiss you.

I've never come across any problems with this version as far as bugs and things go, but I have to know; will you be updating with a version that will work with walls and floors? I have tons of walls that need to be categorized, and I am loathe to try to do it in game.

Thanks. :D I want to make a new version to support walls and floors, but the problem is that I still haven't figured out how the game references the Walls/Floors. :-/ I am going to keep trying to figure out the hashing stuff, but no promises because I suck at anything related to hashing. :) There is one person who I think has it figured out, and I asked but received no reply as of yet. Then again, it was an EZPM and ezboard is good at eating PMs. (Wouldn't be the first time this has happened, heh.) So I'll email them and see if they know. If not, I'll go back to trying to figure out the hashing stuff myself. :)

I'll keep you all posted though. :)

Clothing would be nice, too -- it's a pain to have to go into CAS all the time to clean out all the clothes us download junkies have accumulated. :)

For all of you who still use this regularly, note that a shiny new version 2.0 is available for download at my site (http://www.djssims.com/), so try it out! :)

Thanks, jfade!


Yep, clothing collections would be handy.  I've just started playing with Warlock's BodyShape, and my clothing count is increasing by leaps and bounds!