The Sims Transmogrifier Documentation

The Sims Transmogrifier Glossary

By Don Hopkins

This glossary is a work in progress, not yet complete nor alphabetized.

Object
Most things in The Sims are Objects, but not everything. People and products you can buy in the catalog are all objects. Doors and windows and stairs and columns are all objects, but walls, floors and roofs are not. Special invisible objects are used to accomplish social interactions and orchestrate other complex behaviors. Several objects can be packaged together in an Object File, so they can share data and behaviors. Each object has a unique Object ID that identifies it.

Object ID
Each Object is identified by a unique number, a 32 bit object id. Half of the object id is a 16 bit Magic Cookie, and the other half is a 16 bit random number, that makes it unique.

Magic Cookie
A Magic Cookie is a unique 16 bit number that is assigned to each object producer (a person or organization creating new objects). The purpose is to ensure that all objects created by different people have unique identifiers.
If a player tries to use two different objects that have the same ID, only one of them will show up in the catalog. So if you are making objects that you intend other people to use, you need to get your own Magic Cookie number, in order to that all the objects you create have unique identifiers.
There are only 65535 magic cookies available, and each one allows you to create fewer than 65536 unique objects. So please take one, have fun, but don't be greedy, and never abuse too much of a good thing!
Magic cookies are free for the asking, while they last. You can get one at the Magic Cookie Registry. One magic cookie is more than enough for most people: Cookie hoarders will be banned and their magic cookies recycled.
Type your magic cookie into the "Magic Cookie" field of the Clone Object File dialog, and Transmogrifier will remembered it in the registry for later.
When you clone an object, Transmogrifier randomly generates an 32 bit object ID based on your 16 bit magic cookie and a 16 bit random number. It then checks to make sure this random object id is unique across the objects that it can find in the Sims data directories. If not, it just generates another random object id, until it finds one that is unique across the objects it knows. If you're making lots of objects, keep them somewhere Transmogrifier can find them, so it doesn't reuse their object ids.
The author apologizes for this retrofitted approach to ensuring unique object ids, which was not part of the original design of The Sims. Therefore, the unique identifiers of all objects published by Maxis should be consider reserved, no matter what their magic cookie field.
Transmogrifier won't reuse the id of an object it can find in The Sims runtime directories, so as long as you use your own unique Magic Cookie, have the full complement of official objects from Maxis, and keep around all the new objects you've created, you should not have any problems.
Future versions of Transmogrifier and other tools will provide better magic cookie and object id management.

Product Name
The Product Name of an Object can be viewed in the catalog, along with its price and description. You can use Transmogrifier's Edit Object Window to change it.

Product Price
The Product Price of an Object can be viewed in the catalog, along with its name and description. You can use Transmogrifier's Edit Object Window to change it.

Product Description
The Product Description of an Object can be viewed in the catalog, along with its name and price. You can use Transmogrifier's Edit Object Window to change it.

Object File
Object Files have names that end with ".iff" or ".spf". Each object file can contain multiple Object definitions. Object files can be packed together with other files in Far Files. The file name of an object file is not important, because the user will know it by its Product Name instead. Transmogrifier's Clone Object File window lets you assign the file name for a newly cloned object. It appends a random number so it probably won't clash with anybody else's cloned object, but that's independent of the object id

Far File
Far Files have names that end with ".far". They are used to package together other files, like ".zip" files, but using a different file format.

Single Tile Object
A Single Tile Object is simply an Object that fits on a single tile. As opposed to a Multi Tile Object.

Multi Tile Object
A Multi Tile Object is an Object that takes up more than one tile, and is composed of several Single Tile Objects. Each of the tiles of a multi tile object is represented by a different Slave Object. One of the slave objects is distinguished as the Lead Object. There is an abstract object class called the Master Object that is never created or placed in the world, which represents the whole group in the object catalog.

Lead Object
One of the tiles of a Multi Tile Object is marked as the Lead Object of the group. The Lead Object receives messages sent to the group as a whole. It's different than the Master Object, in that the Lead Object exists in the world as one of the tiles, but the Master Object is an abstract class that exists outside of the world, representing the object in the product catalog.

Master Object
Each Multi Tile Object has exactly one Master Object, an abstract class that is never actually created in the world, that represents the object in the product catalog. It's different than the Lead Object, in that the Master Object is an abstract class, and the Lead Object occupies one of the tiles in the world.

Slave Object
Each Multi Tile Object has one or more Slave Objects that occupy different tiles in the world. They are all manipulated together as a group. One of the Slave Objects is distinguished as the Lead Object, which handles messages for the whole group.

Catalog Icon Image
The Catalog Icon Image is a small bitmap picture that's displayed in the catalog to represent a product. It's also used in the action queue, to show that somebody is going to interact with the object. The Sims generates the catalog icon automatically from the draw groups and Sprite images.

Catalog Popup Image
The Catalog Popup Image is a larger bitmap picture that's displayed in the catalog popup window to illustrate a product. The Sims generates the catalog popup icon automatically from the draw groups and Sprite images.

Speech Icon Image
The Speech Icon Image is a small bitmap picture that's displayed above a person's head when they're talking, thinking, or dreaming about the object. The Sims generates the speech icon automatically from the draw groups and Sprite images.

Sprite
A Sprite is a two dimensional image of an Object, that includes multiple frames for each different Zoom and Rotation. Each zoom and rotation of a sprite consists of a frame with a color paletized Pixel Image, a Z Buffer depth map, and an Alpha Channel transparency map.
An object can be composed of one or more component sprites, that can be animated independently, like the hands and bird of the Cuckoo Clock. Animations are accomplished by flipping between several different Sprite Images.
The original 3 dimensional object sprites are rendered in 3D Studio Max, using the other authoring tools. Transmogrifier is not a 3D graphics tool, however it does allow you to export, edit and import the two dimensional bitmaps that were originally rendered from 3D models, and even create your own sprite images by drawing them in 2 dimensions, without using a 3d graphics tool.
People are drawn with live 3D polygons and texture maps instead of pre-rendered sprites, so you can't use Transmogrifier to edit their appearance.

Graphical State
Objects can switch between different Graphical States, to change and animate their appearance. Each graphical state enables a different set of sprites. Switching between different Graphical States is the high level way that SimAntics control the appearance of an object. Some objects have dynamic sprites that SimAntics programmers can switch in and out at a lower level, like the hands of the Cuckoo Clock.

Zoom
Each Sprite has three different Zooms: Small, Medium and Large.

Rotation
Each Sprite has four different Rotations. Some rotations may be rendered by flipping other rotations, taking advantage of Symmetry to save memory.

Symmetry
Some Sprites are symetrical, such that two of their rotations can be drawn by flipping the other other two rotations (bilateral symmetry), or all four of their rotations use the same image (radially symmetry). This saves lots of memory.

BMP File
A BMP files contains an image, in the standard Windows file image format. Some are 24 bit deep true color images, and others are 8 bit palettized images, including a Color Palette.

Color Palette
A Color Palette is an indexed table of 256 colors, each represented by a red, green and blue value, which is mapped to the pixels of an 8 bit color image, like a BMP File.

Pixel Image
The Pixel Image of each Sprite frame is stored in an 8 bit BMP File and contains a Color Palette. Each Pixel of the Image represents a distance a color. The Pixel Image, Z Buffer and Alpha Channel together define one frame of a Sprite.

Z Buffer Image
The Z Buffer of a Sprite is stored in an 8 bit BMP File and ignores the gray ramp Color Palette. Each Pixel of the Z Buffer represents a distance from the camera, depth, or "Z" value of a corresponding Pixel Image.

Alpha Channel Image
The Alpha Channel of a Sprite is stored in an 8 bit BMP File and ignores the gray ramp Color Palette. Each Pixel of the Alpha Channel represents the transparency of the corresponding Pixel Image.

XML File
Transmogrifier exports and imports the information about an Object File into a text file with the ".xml" suffix. XML is a standard file format for representing structured data, like HTML and SGML. The point of using XML is so that anyone can develop other tools that work with Transmogrifier, because they can read and write each other's standard data formats.

Transmogrifier Window
This is the main window of Transmogrifier. [TODO...]

Clone Object File Window
This is the Transmogrifier dialog that lets you clone an Object File. [TODO...]

Export Whizzer Window
This is the Transmogrifier dialog that lets you export an Object File into an XML File and BMP Files that you can edit. [TODO...]
- Options:
  - Just Change Colors.
    Just changing sprite colors, but not sprite shapes. Exports color bitmaps, while preserving the Z Buffers and Alpha Channels in the Object File.
  - One Zoom, One Channel.
    Export largest zoom. Minimum number of files. If just changing colors, then preserve Z buffers and Alpha channels, good quality. Otherwise if changing shape, then automatically generate smaller zooms, Z buffers and Alpha channels, lowest quality.
  - All Zooms, One Channel.
    Export all zooms. Maximum number of files. If just changing colors, then preserve Z buffers and Alpha channels, best quality. Otherwise if changing shape, then automatically generate Z buffers and Alpha channels, low quality.
  - One Zoom, All Channels.
    Export largest zoom, Z buffers, and Alpha channels. Automatically generate smaller zooms. Good quality. Only available if changing shape, disabled if just changing colors.
  - All Zooms, All Channels.
    Export all zooms, Z buffers, and Alpha channels. Maximum number of files. Best quality. Only available if changing shape, disabled if just changing colors.
- Compress Bitmap Files (Small/Large)
- Create Sub Directories (Sub/Same)
- Smooth Small Zoom Colors
- Smooth Small Zoom Edges
- Z Buffer Generation (Back/Front)
- Alpha Channel Generation (Anti-aliased/Jaggy)

Import Object File Window
This is the Transmogrifier. dialog that lets you import an Object File from an XML File and BMP Files that you edited. [TODO...]

Edit Object Window
This is the Transmogrifier. dialog that lets you edit some of the properties of an Object. You can change its Name, Price and Description. [TODO...]

View Object Window
This is the Transmogrifier. dialog that lets you view the various Graphical States, Rotations and Zooms of Object. [TODO...]

Progress Window
This is the Transmogrifier. dialog that shows you the ongoing progress and results of Cloning, Exporting and Importing Objects.

Transmogrifier
Transmogrifier is a tool that lets you clone an existing object in The Sims, and edit its name, price, description and sprite images. The graphics are exported as BMP files, which you can edit with a painting program like Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. Once you edit the pictures of the object, you can import them back into The Sims.

Other Tools
There are several tools used for creating and editing objects and characters, including Transmogrifier, SimShow and Edith. There are other higher level tools that aren't available yet. [TODO...]

SimShow
SimShow is a tool for displaying and developing character skins and animations. [TODO...]

Edith
Edith is a tool for programming behaviors and editing houses and families. [TODO...]

SimAntics
SimAntics is the visual programming language edited with that controls the behavior of objects and characters in The Sims. [TODO...]

The Author
- Don Hopkins
- E-mail: SimTools@TheSimsTransmogrifier.com
- Web: http://www.TheSimsTransmogrifier.com