QBobWatson
23rd Mar 2006, 05:50 AM
Recently I made a clone of the "wall-eye" plasma TV. I placed my version somewhat lower to the ground than the Maxis version, and this was reflected in the thumbnail -- that is, only the top half of my TV was visible in the thumbnail images, and the buy mode preview was low down on the screen as well. After much investigation, I've discovered the reason, and the fix:
Many objects (all of them in EP2?) have a thumbnailExtension block in the main CRES file. Usually this block is empty. When this is the case, the thumbnail is rendered from a default position, pointing towards the center of the object (however that is determined).
In the wall-eye TV, however, the thumbnailExtension block contains one item: an empty Array named tvWall_thumbnailShape. If you search for this file name in SimPE, you'll find a file called tvWall_thumbnailShape_cres. This latter resource node has one child node, a cViewerRefNode, with interesting values in the cTransformNode tab. The cTransformNode specifies the location and orientation of the camera used to take the thumbnail snapshots.
Here's how to tinker so the thumbnail image looks like you want it (using SimPE):
1) If the object has "custom thumbnails" (by which I mean the thumbnailExtension block is nonempty), try deleting everything in the thumbnailExtension block and see if you like the default behavior. If so, you can stop here.
2a) If the object has custom thumbnails, search for the CRES file referred to in the thumbnailExtension block. Extract that file, and import it into your object file.
2b) If the object doesn't have custom thumbnails and you want to add one, extract any other object's custom thumbnails (like tvWall_thumbnailShape_cres), and import it into your object file.
3) Rename the file you imported. I'll assume you named it blah_thumbnailShape_cres.
4) Run "Fix object integrity." Make sure that the filename in the cObjectGraphNode tab in blah_thumbnailShape_cres was changed -- if not, fix object integrity again. (I had to do it twice.)
5) Specify the desired camera position and orientation in the cViewerRefNode in blah_thumbnailShape_cres.
6) Change/add the filename to ##0x1c050000!blah_thumbnailShape in the thumbnailExtension block of the main CRES.
Disclaimer: I've only actually tried this on my one object, so this very well may not work for you. Feel free to post your own complaints and fixes.
This is my first post on MTS2, so if I did something wrong, please don't kill me!
Many objects (all of them in EP2?) have a thumbnailExtension block in the main CRES file. Usually this block is empty. When this is the case, the thumbnail is rendered from a default position, pointing towards the center of the object (however that is determined).
In the wall-eye TV, however, the thumbnailExtension block contains one item: an empty Array named tvWall_thumbnailShape. If you search for this file name in SimPE, you'll find a file called tvWall_thumbnailShape_cres. This latter resource node has one child node, a cViewerRefNode, with interesting values in the cTransformNode tab. The cTransformNode specifies the location and orientation of the camera used to take the thumbnail snapshots.
Here's how to tinker so the thumbnail image looks like you want it (using SimPE):
1) If the object has "custom thumbnails" (by which I mean the thumbnailExtension block is nonempty), try deleting everything in the thumbnailExtension block and see if you like the default behavior. If so, you can stop here.
2a) If the object has custom thumbnails, search for the CRES file referred to in the thumbnailExtension block. Extract that file, and import it into your object file.
2b) If the object doesn't have custom thumbnails and you want to add one, extract any other object's custom thumbnails (like tvWall_thumbnailShape_cres), and import it into your object file.
3) Rename the file you imported. I'll assume you named it blah_thumbnailShape_cres.
4) Run "Fix object integrity." Make sure that the filename in the cObjectGraphNode tab in blah_thumbnailShape_cres was changed -- if not, fix object integrity again. (I had to do it twice.)
5) Specify the desired camera position and orientation in the cViewerRefNode in blah_thumbnailShape_cres.
6) Change/add the filename to ##0x1c050000!blah_thumbnailShape in the thumbnailExtension block of the main CRES.
Disclaimer: I've only actually tried this on my one object, so this very well may not work for you. Feel free to post your own complaints and fixes.
This is my first post on MTS2, so if I did something wrong, please don't kill me!