What I've Been Working On #004

Hey all - I know I usually post on Fridays, but I'm sharing a bit early this week in anticipation of the Parchment Computer mod releasing then.  This week has felt like a drag, but I've had some fun discoveries along the way.

Parchment Computer

So it turns out the parchment computer was actually quite a bit easier than I expected now that I know how animations work!  For those who mod and want to know how it was done, I had to override the Animation State Machine that controls the computer animations, to add a new kind of computer type: "Parchment".  I also added options with clip tunings further down the file in every ParameterSelector.

Then, created a new computer tuning that references that computer type:

Doing it this way allows the animations to stay the same for every other computer type, but changes the animations for anything marked as "Parchment", and allows the possibility for others to create their own "parchment computers" that will work as long as they reference the new computer tuning.

Sidesaddle

So remember when I said I was about 80% done with the sidesaddle mod?  I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.  🙃  I spent at least eight hours just on this mod this week, and the transitions into and out of the walkstyles are giving me a lot of trouble.  Believe it or not, this was major progress:

The issue is with how the Sim is being parented to the Horse when turning.  I think I've found a close workaround for many of the files, but I'm not sure if I have the skills/knowledge to get rid of all the bumpiness.  I did manage to override all of the idle and social interactions, so when the Sim is just sitting on the horse they'll stay sidesaddle, but not for obstacles.  I'm 95 animations in and trying to push through, but I'm not gonna lie, it's a slog.

Gradual Aging

I don't have a lot of visual deliverables for this one this week.  I've been working on the script which auto-adds the buffs to the Sims as they age.  So far it works well, but I need to fix up the gray hair overlays so they all have the correct sort order.  Next steps for this mod will be adding the possibility to dye hair or get wrinkle treatments to slow aging.

PSA to other modders - sim_info.age_progress returns the age in days - use the code above to get it as a percentage if needed.

Regency Update

I was feeling so frustrated with the sidesaddle animations that I needed something new to focus on.  I know that strictly speaking dancing isn't getting a full overhaul in the next Regency update - but I've been desperately wanting some variety in the dancing animations so I wanted to add a new simple one or two.  This is a quick WIP of a waltz.

Hope y'all are having a great week! Until next time...

~ JS