Binary template for the "0xEA5118B0" resource

Sigma1202 · January 2020

Hi, I was wondering if I could get the binary template for the 0xEA5118B0 resource?

Thanks in advance

IngeJones · February 2020

SGMS not seen since 2018, SGTL not seen this year. It's a shame if this help has fizzled out.

Denton47 · February 2020

I would also like to know what 0x1B192049 and 0x1B19204A are used for, they appear to duplicate the information in 0xEA5118B0 but there are now over 7000 instances instead of just one, are they supposed to replace 0xEA5118B0 ?

Denton47 · March 2020

I made a little experiment where I changed the color of the flames in island_tiki_torch_flame in one of the new resources:

0x1B192049-0x0051185B-0x613534C3B6CDD1A3

and the flames did indeed change color in game (sorry I am not allowed to post images), so to answer my own question, the new 0x1B192049 and 0x1B19204A resources do seem to replace the old 0xEA5118B0 resource, why 0xEA5118B0 is still included I do not know.

MizoreYukii · March 2020

@Denton47 Aren't flames an effect? Did you figure out how to edit effects then, and if so how? That would help a ton of modders if you could explain how.

Denton47 · March 2020

The flames for the Tiki torches are created from four particle effects, two for the flames and two for the smoke I think and also a sound effect, I changed the values in the color curve table for the first two particle effects in the test I did.

0x1B192049 has the same format as 0xEA5118B0 except for the version field in the beginning, 0x1B19204A is some sort of master table mapping which resources the visual effects are stored in.

I am working on a small tool to edit and clone visual effects but it still needs more work before it's ready, the tool is based on the information available on the TS3 Wiki (sorry I am not allowed to post links either).

MizoreYukii · March 2020

@Denton47 That's amazing!! Will you post back here when you finish? Or will you be uploading to ModtheSims? I hope you succeed, that's going to be such a useful tool.

Also, do you know how to disable effects through your research? There's a couple of effects that people have been trying to remove (headlights on cars, street lights, etc.) but they aren't turned off on our end no matter what we do like normal effects, and we think they are controlled by the C++ side because they are world objects. I'm hoping you maybe found a way?

Denton47 · March 2020

I will be posting more here as I need credits to become a forum member so I can post links and screenshots, when the VFX tool is ready for testing it will be on modthesims.info I think, I have also been thinking about putting my sound tool up there to make it more widely available for modding.

Regarding the cars, I don't know much about the world files I'm afraid, these are the visual effects for all the headlights but I don't know how useful that information is:

bullet_train_headlights
bullet_train_headlights_rev
bullet_train_headlights_revep08
bullet_train_headlightsep08
commuter_train_headlights
ep_world_trolley_headlights
ep_world_trolley02_headlights
ep08_bike_headlight
world_obj_truck01_headlights
world_secret_lab_truck_headlights
world_secretvan_headlights
world_socv_train_headlights
world_train_headlights
world_trolley_headlights
world_vehicle_cop_headlights
world_vehicle_grip_truck_headlights
world_vehicle_limo_headlights
world_vehiclecoupe_headlights
world_vehiclecoupe_headlights_ducks
world_vehicleeuro_01_headlights
world_vehicleluxury_headlights
world_vehiclemuscle_headlights
world_vehiclesportscoup_headlights
world_vehicletaxi_headlights
world_vehicletruck_headlights
world_vehiclevan_headlights

With the VFX tool is should be possible to "turn them off", however the visual effects only renders the light beams, if you want to stop vehicles from illuminating the surroundings you need to edit their LITE resource.

pandorasimbox · March 2020

Hi @Denton47 ! I'm a modding friend of @MizoreYukii , who let me know about your VFX tool. I am one of the people she mentioned who are trying to turn off the headlights on cars, street lights and the like. I just registered to say thank you for the work you have done so far and for sharing so openly. I look forward to your progress and to making use of the tool when it's ready. :)

MizoreYukii · March 2020

@Denton47 Oh, I'm just now recognizing your username! Yes, the sound tool would be greatly appreciated on MTS, or anywhere else really since it's hard to discuss/recommend it with most people due to rules and the location, lol. Tysm for that tool btw! It's a lifesaver.

I was able to track down most of them by name a few months back, but no matter what we did nothing worked (I even tried altering the SWB file after every other trick I knew failed, but I didn't know what I was doing). I'm so looking forward to the possibility of finally turning off these effects or even cloning and altering for other projects. Is there a possibility we would be able to create entirely new effects and import them into the game? Thank you for answering my questions and taking the time to answer them!

Denton47 · March 2020

Modding existing visual effects should be pretty straight forward, you select the effect and the tool will load all associated effects, you edit whatever you want to edit and save directly to a package and put it in your mod folder. Only thing you need to be aware of is that EA tend to change this resource quite often and if they do you will need to recreate your modding, if the versions don't match the game will most likely crash.

Creating new custom effects is a bit more problematic, the big question here is whether it is possible to create a new effect/resource without having to merge it with the EA effects into a single resource, it that is the case then you can only have only custom effect mod installed at a time, if you install two they would just override each other.

MizoreYukii · March 2020

@Denton47 If we are forced to only have one file at a time, could you possibly make a feature in your program that allows us to import two or more effects and then export them as a merged file? Would that be possible?

Denton47 · March 2020

The visual effects themselves (the Swarm binaries) can be separated now in the new 0x1B192049 resource, they don't have to be merged, it is the 0x1B19204A resource which is one big table that maps the instance ID of all the EA effects to the instance ID of the 0x1B192049 resource they are stored in, it is likely that custom effects will need to be added to that table before the game will load them.

I will be working on modding existing effects first as it doesn't require updating the 0x1B19204A resource, an Alpha/Preview version should be ready soon I hope.

Denton47 · March 2020

Since we have a quarantine in effect where I work I had time to do some testing on custom visual effects, unfortunately I haven't had much success, the only way I can get new custom effects to play is by merging their IID's with the EA IID's in the single 0x1B19204A resource, so unless somebody can come up with a bright idea we are stuck with only being able to have one custom effect mod installed at a time.

MizoreYukii · March 2020

Is it not possible to merge the effects from different mods into the same resource like I previously suggested?

Denton47 · March 2020

It is possible (and required) to merge new effects, I have built in a function to merge packages containing visual effects into a single package and build the necessary 0x1B19204A resource containing both the EA effects and the merged effects, I just need to add duplicate checking.

Denton47 · March 2020

The first test version of my tool is now in the Creator Feedback Forum on modthesims.info

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Binary template for the "0xEA5118B0" resource

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