Latest posts of: jfade

Quote from: Slymenstra on 2010 February 22, 22:04:20

Quote from: jfade on 2010 February 22, 18:56:50

I've finished the new Compressorizer, but I'm looking for some feedback. Grab it here:

http://www.jfade.com/temp/maty/Compressorizer1.0.zip

Note that you'll probably have to set the file types to include .nhd, .sim, etc if you are decrapifying. Lemme know if something's missing.

This doesn't work for me any better than the other way, just wonderfully easier to batch them all together. I still get told I need to update, or it says Installed but it is not. Would it be helpful for someone to look at the file that my decrap makes and compare it to the original?

The file gets smaller and the time stamp does change.

I turned off UAC and run this program as Admin. I am running for sure this time 1.1, 2.5, 3.1. I will post the 2 files if anyone is interested.

You'll have to wait and see if Pescado wants the file, he'd have to debug things. It works flawlessly for me though, aside from like 1 file that I didn't care about anyhow.

Working on updating the tool now. Here's a file that kills s3rc. At least, on Windows 7, it comes up with "s3rc has stopped working", so...

[link removed]

No idea what exactly that is or where I got it from, it's a Sims3Pack.

Quote from: coyote on 2009 December 19, 05:00:40

~~ya...~~Yeah, those packages in step three might be needed. I know it adds the water tower and overalls for ~~the~~ Riverview.
Probably important scripts as well.

Grammar Day 2009! Thanks for playing!

Quote from: supersimoholic on 2009 December 18, 23:08:46

More difficult to read?? It's just as easy to read, you just don't like it because I'm not doing what you want.

~~and~~ How is having an opinion retarded? I like lower caps, so what?

Thanks for playing, even though you still don't get it!

Just throwing my two cents in to say that CC Sims3Packs are installing just fine for me. They weren't working at first, but after I removed awesomemod it worked. I updated to latest awesomemod, it stopped working. Removed awesomemod and it works again...

I'm not saying it's awesomemod or that there's not other issues (I know some people who are having problems who don't use any hacks but they're not consistent problems and it's been extremely difficult to duplicate them) but for me everything with the .dbc files and CC works fine.

* jfade shrugs

I installed WA, disabled my old save game files, and removed all mods (I kept any CC installed via the Launcher), patched, and started a fresh new hood just to try things out. Created my guy, moved him in, cheated to give him money (I just want to see what they added dangit!) and sent him to egypt. He did the first quest, finished it, started the next one, but it got dark so I sent him to base camp. He slept, I saved and quit, restarted this morning, played some, saved and got error 16, so I can verify that this happens even with the patch, no hacks, and a fresh game.

Quote from: orion on 2009 September 29, 15:33:55

- They should dump trash and old newspaper in the trash bin if they happen to be around one. After some trash rummaging one of my Sims spent the rest of his live in direct possession of 10 heaps of trash. Unfortunately I failed to test if they get inherited to the next of kin after his demise, but it would certainly be consistent if that happened as well.

The Robotic Hand of God will take care of that for you. That said I would like it if they'd prefer to put their book BACK on the bookshelf once finished with it (if near the shelf anyhow) instead of just shoving it in their inventory. Putting it in their inventory when still in the middle of reading it makes sense but once finished doesn't.

Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2009 September 17, 12:08:35

I REALLY doubt that compressed or uncompressed objects affect save times at ALL because objects are never written back out to disk in any way, so the game has no reason to care.

I think I know what causes horrible save times, though. It occurred to me that the .sims3 saves are actually DBPF files, same as all other packages, and what's more, the game COMPRESSES them. This is a fairly computationally intensive activity, compared to decompressing them, and when I ran a save file through s3rc, I noticed it was taking about as long to compress them as the game did to save them in the first place.

Mystery solved. Huttah. As Pescado has updated s3rc to fix this horror, the Compressorizer will be updated to make use of this feature tonight.

Quote from: crunk on 2009 July 12, 02:37:05

Quote from: jfade on 2009 July 12, 02:25:57

Ubuntu. That's all you'll need. Extremely user friendly, it's super easy to install, and it'll wipe the hard drive before it does if you tell it to. Perfect for internet browsing, word processing, and some casual games.

The only problem that I see with that is that I don't have enough RAM - it's saying it needs at least 256mb, my old rig has 128mb.

I've installed it on a machine with 128 before. Still works fine. Won't be as snappy but you can disable stuff you don't want/need once it's installed.

Quote from: crunk on 2009 July 12, 01:56:28

I have an ancient shitty computer (windows xp, 80gb hd, 128 mb ram, ect.) that I at one point tried to reformat and failed - I've since lost the windows xp disk. I was talking to a coworker about linux and complaining about the general lack of a second computer in the house when I realized that I may be able to salvage the old computer. As it is now it takes entirely too long to start up, and is probably so virus-ridden as to be unusable.

Questions: I have a partially-reformated hard drive. Is it possible to completely burninate my c drive? I came across killdisk; have any MATYians used this? What sort of results have you had?

Recommendations for Linux installs for a very low-end computer? Think of it as a netbook in desktop format: the specs are about the same.

I realize that this would probably be better suited to a computer support type forum, but I don't know of any that I'd trust.

Sim name: Jay Fade
Alternate name: Josh Smith
Sim age/gender: YA/M

Favourite food: Hamburgers
Favourite music: Indie
Favourite colour: Blue

Career options:
Author
Journalist
Part owner (or whatever it's termed as in game) of the book store.

CAS-picked traits:
Good sense of Humor
Bookworm
Heavy Sleeper
Computer Whiz
Friendly

Lifetime Want:
Professional Author OR pretty much any alternative that comes up for my traits in CAS. I don't recall any that I particularly hated.

Quote from: Echo on 2009 June 03, 00:22:24

I know one person has successfully decoded it, and that it is just the header/index which is encrypted, but said person has chosen not to make the discovery public (presumably for legal reasons).

(No, it's not me. Like I could figure that out???)

Well no, I mean like presets (recolors) for instance that a user makes in game and then uploads to the exchange or they upload the Sims3Pack they exported to their site. Currently the Launcher takes the recolor and removes the manifest, changes the instance numbers of the XML and PNG, and then shoves it into dbcdb0.dbc or something like that in the DCCache folder. The dbcdb0.dbc file also contains an index resource of some sort that I haven't yet figured out. The Launcher does the same for patterns, but patterns can be extracted and stuck into the Mods/Packages folder and will show up in the game just fine (but not as custom content, acts as if it's EA made content.) If you do this for presets, though, it won't work. The PNG image will overwrite the default game thumbnail of the item, but you won't be able to select it to use it. That's what I'm referring to, has someone figured out a way to install presets without using the Launcher?

In theory we'll have the same problem with Sims3Packs that are created of objects and CAS Parts people make once that time comes, but I figure we'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

Quote from: Echo on 2009 June 02, 23:47:31

Riverview, and all DLC from the EA site, is in a compressed DBPP package file format. This is most likely to prevent users from simply cloning it, renaming it, and putting it up for download. None of the existing package tools will currently be able to view or edit these.

Correct. Chances are that we might not be able to install any of the store content without the Launcher at any point. Though I'm still really hoping we find ways to install all other types of content without the Launcher...

Have you heard of anyone making any progress on this, Echo? This OneGiantLumpPackage.dbc thing is ridiculous...

Quote from: nekonoai on 2009 June 02, 12:40:45

Fade, did you try using it to install Riverview?

Don't have Riverview yet, but I bet it won't work. They probably did something sneaky about it. Tongue

Quote from: NameGame on 2009 June 02, 02:16:20

I'm lurking on #grah. Someone there tried to install these with a patched RZR download and got a "You are playing a non-final, unauthorized copy of The Sims 3..." message. Also jfade says that his viewer/installer is likely to be up tonight, so there will be that to try in not too long.

Yup. The 3Viewer can be played with by clicking here to download it. It will extract the content from Sims3Pack files and install the ones that we have a known workaround for. Any files we don't have a workaround for are still extracted and dumped into the temp directory under the program. From there, you can play with them and try to figure out how to install them sans-launcher if you'd like... Just be sure to share how you did it once you do. Tongue

For those of you itching to try it out, the tool is available now.

Get it here: http://forum.jfade.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=466

Quote from: Astrocreep on 2009 May 30, 10:15:37

Here is the standard button image. Let me know what you think.

Quote from: Astrocreep on 2009 May 30, 23:47:11

Here is yet another variation, only slight this time. I added an accent around the inside edge of the circle. Once again, I have these transparent, larger, and in separate files. Let me know if you want them.

I do like those. Could you email me the transparent PNGs please? jfade AT djssims DOT com.

Quote from: witch on 2009 May 30, 23:02:55

Oh I do like those buttons! More differentiated than the previous set and very appealing to look at, plus they have a real sims theme.

Hey jfade, I'd be keen to do some testing, are you going to let us know in this thread when it starts, or do you want us to check at your place?

Yes, I'll post here when it starts. I anticipate beginning testing on release day. There's one issue I'm having at the moment though, I haven't yet figured out how the Launcher installs presets. It does something goofy with them. Otherwise, everything works great. I'll let you all know more soon.

OK everyone, thanks for the name suggestions. Despite the poll, I'm going to go with 3Viewer. I think it fits the program better as it's not just a pack installer, but a download manager. Progress is going very well.

At this point, however, I'd like to get some artwork from anyone with the Skills of an Artist. Tongue

I need an icon for the program itself as a transparent PNG. I'd also like an actual image for the Big Shiny Install Button. The BSIB doesn't actually have to say all that (the tooltip will), but it should at least say "Install" on it somewhere. The image would have to be a transparent PNG. There'd need to be different images for the following states:

Standard (What it normally looks like)
Disabled (Can't be clicked)
Pressed (The mouse is clicking it and the mouse button is still being held down)
Rollover (The mouse is hovering over the button)

Hopefully you all can come up with something much better than I can. Cheesy

ETA: Also, a "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON" image...

Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2009 May 28, 02:34:44

I see only vaporware. It looks like they only have a generalized capability to understand a common .obj format and display it, without actually being able to do anything USEFUL with it. No need to panic.

That's basically all it is at this point, import TS2 content or other .obj meshes, separate it into channels. Not much more until the game comes out and they can actually see how to stick the data into a Sims 3 package. Conspiracy theorists can stop panicking. (More so if they'd actually READ to begin with. Tongue

) I'm pretty positive that there will be multiple tools out there to all do the same (or similar) things from multiple sources anyhow. I mean look at how many Sims3Pack editors we have so far. (Although mine isn't out there just yet, but still Tongue

) So quit getting so worked up about it and chill, good grief.

Oh geeze...

I might have to disregard the results of this poll after all. Tongue

Quote from: Skadi on 2009 May 26, 05:46:40

Are you looking for beta testers yet?

Not yet to that point. Maybe in two to three days. Testing will be conducted at my forum.

Quote from: AmberDiceless on 2009 May 26, 20:00:06

I like the sound of SimP3, though I'm not certain it's entirely appropriate considering the function is quite different from SimPE. It sounds to me more like a next generation Clean Installer. Maybe Clean Installer 3 or some similar derivation?

I actually don't want any name associated with SimPE or the Clean Installer at this point just because I really wasn't associated with them, so I don't want to piggyback on that at all. Additionally I don't want to have my nick in any form within the name of the program just because I think that sounds egotistical and I'm not that awesome. Tongue

Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions. I've added a poll now for my four favorites.

Quote from: Inge on 2009 May 25, 20:34:50

There are a couple of Sims3Pack tools at Sims3Tools now, but I dunno if they cover what JFade was planning for his.

Yes and no. That's kinda what I wanted to do but I do plan on additional features such as download management, etc, so I'm going to finish my version anyhow.

EDIT: New preview here

I'm on my way out for the day, but Jud Hudson reminded me that it could also be an acronym if it sounds kinda cool. My unfinished Sims 2 program was called STAPES: Sims Two All-Purpose Package Editing System. A mouthful otherwise but the acronym sounded cool. Tongue

So ... I've got some Sims3Pack files and have already got a partly-functioning editor for them ready to go (Picture here, obviously final version will have a LOT more information, this is just the basic bare bones). Editor will let you preview everything in a Sims3Pack file (yes, PICTURES!) before installing it and clean it up for distribution. It will also show all meta data relating to the content. For Sims, this means you can see their favorite color, their traits, fitness/fatness, etc. etc. Houses will show the price, lot size, and a picture of each level of the house. Other content will be similar.

The main plus to all this is that you can bypass the Launcher entirely when installing custom content. It's written in Java so it's entirely compatible with both the Mac and the PC. PC version will be wrapped as an EXE so you can easily associate Sims3Pack files with the program.

The biggest problem now is coming up with a name. I prefer names that are either Awesome Alliterations (IE Wardrobe Wrangler) or names that make people laugh (IE the WTF Editor). Any suggestions for a name are welcome. Once we get a number of them, I'll pick my favorites and run a poll for them. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: An early version of the program has since been uploaded. Get it here: http://forum.jfade.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=466