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Interstellar Traveler
Original Poster
#1 Old 18th Jun 2012 at 11:01 PM Last edited by SIMul8rReviews : 5th Jul 2012 at 5:04 PM.
Default Tutorial: Adjusting Geostates in TSR Workshop
This Tutorial Will Cover the Following:
  • Explain what geostates are/do
  • How to adjust the geostates of an object in TSRW
  • How to export your project as a .package file

This Tutorial Will NOT Cover the Following:
  • How to mesh
  • How to use milkshape (which is definitely not included in this tutorial)
  • How to use any other feature in TSRW other than the geostates

Reminder: This tutorial only applies to objects that have geostates already included with them! Thanks Morph!

Before we begin, you will need:
TSR Workshop: http://www.thesimsresource.com/workshop
Your object should be prepared before we begin.

Prologue
Geostates are the many states in which an object can transfer to. For example, when you put in many books in a bookshelf, the bookshelf gets fuller.. or when your sim puts the laundry on a laundry line and the laundry line goes from displaying nothing to a line of clothing; these are called geostates.

Step One:Locating the Right Place
Open up TSR Workshop, and then your mesh. Today, I am going to be using a modified version of the Country Bookshelf that I emptied. Right now, your screen should look like this:



Now we are going to navigate to the "Mesh" tab; this is located right next to the "Texture" tab and is two down from the "Project" tab. (If you still can't find it, look below)



Step Two:The Visible Geostates
Once you are there, make sure you have "High Level of Detail" selected in the menu above the Rotation tool and beside the Import/Export tools. Now, if you haven't noticed before, with every object that has a geostate there will be a menu that allows you to select a geostate to view. This menu is called "Visible Geostate" and is located right next to the Rotation tool.

Right now, if you select any of the geostates from the menu, your mesh (in the preview) will turn out to be mangled or even invisible.



Right now, we are going to select "None" in the visible geostate menu. This way we can edit the mesh directly when we start adjusting the geostates. Your mesh should be back to its normal form once you select "None" in the menu.

Step Three:The Face Selector
Now, find the menu labeled "Group 0" or whichever group you have first in your mesh. Right now, the category "Mesh" should be highlighted.



You want to now highlight the category "Geostate [instance name]", so for example.. I'll be highlighting "Geostate 0x4CF9B596"



Now, notice that your mesh is back to the same form it was when we selected a geostate from the menu. This is because selecting the geostate from the Group category and navigating to it in the Visible Geostate menu do the same thing, and because you're most likely viewing the exact same geostate you selected in the menu.

Moving on.. once you clicked on the geostate category, you should have noticed a box with three dots (...) in it. Click on that. This should have opened the window called "The Face Selector." If you take a look now at you preview, it looks normal but with all of the faces visible.

Your project should look like this:


If you do not want to be introduced to the face selector and know how it works to create your own geostates (ie. I don't want my object to have geostates) Read this post: http://www.modthesims.info/showpost...142&postcount=7 and then skip to Step Four.

Now, to introduce you to The Face Selector:


You have "Faces Selected" which tells you.. how many faces you currently have selected in all.
You have "Tools" that include the following:
-Click n Pick
-Freehand
-Basic Square

Now, the rest of the stuff on here isn't really important in this tutorial, so I'll skip past that. I'm not going to go in depth with all of the tools because they all work differently. Right now, we are simply going to be using the "Basic Square" tool, so make sure that the "Basic Square" dot is filled in.

DO NOT CLICK DONE. You are not done using this tool

Now, as if you were going to select faces/vertices in Milkshape, drag the selection box over the entire mesh in the preview.

Your mesh should now look like this:


Now click the "Done" button.. BUT WAIT.. you are not done yet! Look at your Mesh's polygon counts. Do they match your geostate's polycount? They usually wont..
Now you need to adjust the view of your mesh in the preview (ie. rotating, pan, view) to find any abnormal details about the mesh. (If you are making a new bookshelf or other object that you want to have geostates for, the first geostate should not equal the mesh's poly count, only the final one. step six will explain more.)



In the picture above, you can see that I missed a few faces on the back of the bookshelf. Now, in that position of the preview, open up The Face Selector again. You will definitely see now that you have missed some. Select the faces that you missed up until the geostate's poly counts equal the mesh's poly counts. Make sure to check every direction of the mesh.. this means below it, on the side, and above.

Once your geostate's polys match the mesh's, great! Now you should be able to see the normal mesh when you have the geostate selected. But you aren't done yet!

Step FourThe Face Selector Revisited
You have only adjusted one geostate.. and usually bookshelves have two and sometimes three in one group. This shouldn't be a problem. Just open TFS again and repeat Step Three.

Step FiveLow Level Detail
Do not forget about the low level detail meshes. They also have geostates! Go to the menu above the rotation tool and then navigate to the "Low Level Detail"

Some low level details only have one geostate.. and some have two (like the bookshelf I am using now.) this is not an issue. Just open TFS again and repeat the same process explained in Step Three. Once you have that finished, HOORAY!

Step SixFor the People Who Are Creating Custom Bookshelves and other Objects that you want to have geostates. (If you are not one of these two, skip to step 7)

If you want the geostates to appear on your bookshelf/other object, you must throw in some variation. When meshing, you do want to include all of the objects/possibilities that you want to include in your object.. then, when you go to adjust the geostates.. make sure you include the base of the object, and then select only a few of the items that you want to be seen for the first geostate. Of course, this will not match the mesh's poly counts, so you will have to be extra careful doing this (if there are three geostates, the second geostate should have more variety but not completely full) . Then, for the final geostate, you want to have that one match the mesh's poly count.

The first geostate=object's storage empty with little to no objects visible.
The second geostate (if there are three)=object's storage is halfway full and half of the objects should be visible
The final geostate=object's storage is close to being full with all objects visible.

You will need to do this on the low level detail mesh as well.. and if that only has one geostate, then it would be best to go with all of the objects visible.

Step SevenExporting
Now, you have successfully adjusted the geostates and are ready to test it out in game. Go to EDIT>Project Contents in the top left hand navigation menu. Now, when the Project Contents window comes up.. select Export and name it whatever you want.

MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR PROJECT JUST IN CASE!



Final StepGame Testing
Open up your game and navigate to what room you selected it's buy mod flags to be in. Now, when you are in game.. it should hold its first geostate appearance. If it still looks mangled or is invisible.. you might have done something wrong in the process or clicked the wrong button. If this is the problem, please go back and make sure you have adjusted all the geostates.

For the people who wanted a varying geostate object.. once you begin to put things inside of your object (ie. books inside a bookshelf)..eventually the object will switch to its second geostate appearance..and then its final geostate appearence.. meaning that the object's storage is almost or is full.

FINAL FORM:

Tutorial by SIMul8rReviews

Formally SeeMyu | Retired Mod
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Sockpuppet
#2 Old 19th Jun 2012 at 8:19 AM
Tip,
regroup your geostates in seperate meshgroups.
Forum Resident
#3 Old 19th Jun 2012 at 9:00 AM
It's important to mention this tutorial only applies to objects with a geostate already or a custom object with a custom script, as geostates are controlled via the script and cannot be used willy-nilly whenever. Otherwise, very informative.


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Interstellar Traveler
Original Poster
#4 Old 27th Jun 2012 at 6:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BloomsBase
Tip,
regroup your geostates in seperate meshgroups.


Bloom, I didn't think you could regroup the geostates?

Formally SeeMyu | Retired Mod
Sockpuppet
#5 Old 27th Jun 2012 at 6:40 PM
if you have a look at the washingmachine or dryer those GEOstates are incredible hard to select in TSRW.
But if you duplictae a few groups in TSRW and seperate the ''harder to pick'' meshparts in the meshfile you then be able to hide the parts you dont want and simply draw a rectangle arround the Geostates that are left.
Hope this makes sence....
Interstellar Traveler
Original Poster
#6 Old 27th Jun 2012 at 7:26 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BloomsBase
if you have a look at the washingmachine or dryer those GEOstates are incredible hard to select in TSRW.
But if you duplictae a few groups in TSRW and seperate the ''harder to pick'' meshparts in the meshfile you then be able to hide the parts you dont want and simply draw a rectangle arround the Geostates that are left.
Hope this makes sence....


Oh dear. Washers and Dryers are something different. What you said did make since, but I wouldn't know where to start on separating the meshparts lol. Is it something I can do inside of TSRW, or would I have to do it in Milkshape?

Formally SeeMyu | Retired Mod
Interstellar Traveler
Original Poster
#7 Old 5th Jul 2012 at 5:01 PM
New helpful tip for Step Three!

If you go into the face selector, you will see a drop down menu at the bottom that says "Clear." If you open that menu, there is an option to "Select All" which will save you a great amount of time. I did not include this in the tutorial because I wanted to introduce you and others, who want to make an object with working geostates, to the tools so you can edit the geostates to your liking.

Formally SeeMyu | Retired Mod
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 1st Feb 2013 at 1:35 PM
Why is my geostate option greyed out? I'm trying to change the night view of a rabbit hole but it won't let me! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!1!!!!1
Sockpuppet
#9 Old 1st Feb 2013 at 1:45 PM
if it is greyed out then there is no Geostate.
Think the night view is done texturewise
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