I think this belongs here and not in the "Object Creation Workshop & Repair Center" forum. I've fried so many brain cells over this.

I'm trying to make a continuously floating object (in an animated or ghostly/magically sense not in a static, "simply a raised mesh in 3D space" sense). I'm using a dining chair as my base since they can be haunted. It should be found in the dinning chairs for $1. Although it is a base game chair, it may require OFB since that is enabled in my SimPE filetab.

I'm familiar with animating Sims, but I haven't done objects. Everything I've done has failed. I've started with the Tutorial: Making your first custom object animation...in particular the BHAV part. I'm trying to avoid having to deal with joints and skeletons. Does the haunting animation even require or make use of the joints/skeleton? If so, changing its mesh in Wings3D might ruin the whole thing anyway.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Last edited by maybesomethingdunno : 2nd Jun 2010 at 08:31 PM. Reason: Removed file

Heya MSD

You shouldn't need to mess with the skeleton for the chair for that animation - the practical node is already a child of all the joint nodes, so it will always animate as a single solid object.

What is actually happening to it when you use it in-game? Is it breaking when you place it? Is it working as usual but not animating? Is it animating once then aborting? Are there any error logs if you run it in debug mode?

Hey, Echo. Thank you for the response. You're wonderful sight for sore eyes.

It breaks when I get to the animation bhav or anything regarding the Stack Object ID. The full error log is too big to be attached without compression, so I added it to the zip from my previous post and placed into this post.

In the Function - Main Bhav, I had:
0: [global 0x0118] Idle (1 arg: ticks=0x0005)
T:1 F: E

1: [prim 0x0002] Expression (Stack Object's 0x000B (object id) := My 0x000B (object id))
T:2 F: E

2: [prim 0x0002] Expression (Temp 0x0001 := Literal 0xFFFF)
T:3 F: E

3: [prim 0x0069] Animate Object (Object: Stack Object ID 0x0000,
animation: "o-chair-haunted-float-loop" [ObjectAnims:0x25 (Private)],
Event tree: --- (Global),
Anim Speed: ---,
Interruptible: False,
Start at tag: ---,
Loop Count: Temp 0x0001,
Blend out: True,
Blend in: True,
Flip Flag: False,
Sync to calling object: False,
Align blend out with calling object: False,
Not hurryable: False)
T:4 F: E

4: [global 0x0118] Idle (1 arg: ticks=0x4E20)
T:4 F: E

which gives the error:
Object id: 23
name: Chair - Dining - Loft Office
Stack size: 1
Error: Reference to tree tree parameter when no parameter exists.
Iterations: 2
Frame 0:
Stack Object id: 0
Node: 1
Tree: id 4096 name 'Function - Main' version 9
from SIMPE_CHAIRDININGLOFTOFFICE_CRES
Prim state: 0
Params: Locals:


If I apply the same mindset for animating Sims (loop through animate Sim and idle), my "Function - Main" looks like this:
0: [global 0x0118] Idle (1 arg: ticks=0x0005)
T:1 F: E

1: [prim 0x0069] Animate Object (Object: Stack Object ID 0x0000,
animation: "o-chair-haunted-float-loop" [ObjectAnims:0x25 (Private)],
Event tree: --- (Global),
Anim Speed: ---,
Interruptible: False,
Start at tag: ---,
Loop Count: Temp 0x0001,
Blend out: True,
Blend in: True,
Flip Flag: False,
Sync to calling object: False,
Align blend out with calling object: False,
Not hurryable: False)
T:0 F: 0

Resulting in:
Object id: 23
name: Chair - Dining - Loft Office
Stack size: 1
Error: Could not find object reference.
Iterations: 2
Frame 0:
Stack Object id: 0
Node: 1
Tree: id 4096 name 'Function - Main' version 9
from SIMPE_CHAIRDININGLOFTOFFICE_CRES
Prim state: 0
Params: Locals:

It is quite possible that there is something very obvious and noobish that I'm simply missing. But, I tend to keep getting one of these two error messages whenever I fiddle with it.

The purpose behind this is more for a proof of concept for a decorative object, so I don't care if the chair still functions as a chair at this stage. A table lamp, which can also be haunted, may be a better choice for a base object for the final product. But, I flipped a coin and went with the dining chair as the base object for figuring out the animation. I assume that I can apply the same technique to either one.

Last edited by maybesomethingdunno : 3rd Jun 2010 at 03:57 AM. Reason: Removed file

Ah, okay. In your function main, change line 1
Expression (Stack Object's 0x000B (object id) := My 0x000B (object id))
to
Expression (Stack Object ID 0x0000 := My 0x000B (object id))

Then try it again.

That's it! It works! A hundred thousand "thank you"s would not be enough! To think, I've been tearing my hair out all this time over what turned out to be two single character changes (from "B" to "0" and from "4" to "A"). I can't help but laugh. Of course it would be something simple. Hooray for progress!

Again thank you so much!

That is, so often, how these things go. Glad you got it working!