Visual Effects

AFAIK they are all in the SWB Effects file, the same as with Sims 3. The resource is in the ClientDeltaBuild0 file, ID 6F6664543F71A573.

Ah thanks :)

Does this require something on the lines of SimsPE? I didn't play Sims 3 but did understand how to edit and change/build behaviour etc files, a bit in Sims 2. In this game however I am totally stuck when it comes to Effects, specifically the fish tank water and plants. I use Sims 4 Studio and understand how to edit the slots but a nothing about FX files. It would be very cool to add different effect to objects but at this time I have no idea how to even try.

AFAIK there isn't currently any way to edit the SWB Effects file. For Sims3 a separate tool was made for editing SWB files which later on was included in s3pe.
Certain things can be altered today in a standard fashion. Some of the sound effects are written into XML files, and they can be turned off there or swapped with a different sound. Some of the graphic effects will have a .dds image which works alongside the SWB file; the image can be edited or swapped with a different one such that the 'effect' would look different in game.

Thank you I'm still learning and any info along these lines is helpful. I'm very interested in the graphic effects and SWB files. I will have to do some reading.

Hi guys! Any news about the SWB file's editing? Is it possible to edit those files? As SWB files are the same of sims 3, is it possible to import sims 3 effects in sims 4?

"AlexCroft93;c-16950067" wrote:
Hi guys! Any news about the SWB file's editing? Is it possible to edit those files? As SWB files are the same of sims 3, is it possible to import sims 3 effects in sims 4?

Hey! I took a quick look at it and S3PE, S4PE, and S4S do not support editing of SWB files. This means that you would need to either reverse engineer that file type or ask ModdingSimGuru for a binary template. Once you gather that, you would need to fork S3PE and S4PE and add support for it yourself. With that, you wouldn't be able to directly copy Sims 3 files (as they might have a different header), but if they have the same file structure, you could port it 1:1.

Now, with all of that information, I'm pretty sure effects use additional files for textures and operating them in-game, as well as, the effect might need to register somewhere to be available. That is if you're planning on adding new effects and not making overrides.

I have not looked at the existing tool for editing Sims 3 effects, but if that tool is open source then it shouldn't be too difficult to port it to Sims 4, if the same file structure is kept.

This would be an awesome thing to have, to include custom effects for objects and animations, but the amount of work required for this might not be worth it unless you're really dedicated.
I feel like there is a workaround for using effects that I've seen around but I can't recall where or what it was.

Doesn't s4pe allow for user wrappers?

"ChaosAlchemistX;c-17056155" wrote:
As far as I know, effects are stored in Swarm Binary files, 0xEA5118B0, just like in The Sims 3. I am actually trying to create a tool for rendering them outside the game based on the code for the Halcyon project, created by Andrew Willmott, who created the original swarm effect engine that's used in The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4, SimCity 4, SimCity 5, Spore, and I think a few other games.

I did create a tool for S3PE/S3PI for cloning effects, which used a S3PI wrapper library created by Andrew Tavera. It was a success at cloning effects. The wrapper library and my effect cloning tool were originally located on Google Code, but I have since moved them to GitHub to continue work on them. I'm not sure, but it should be possible to convert them to work with S4PE. I would post a link to download them, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that here or if I'm even at a high enough level yet to be able to do that.

I would also like ModdingSimGuru to post the binary template for the Swarm Binary files as well, so I can see how much the structure has changed from The Sims 3 and how much new data has been added. Then I could ensure that my Effect Cloning Tool and the library it runs on function properly when converting them from S3PE/S3PI to S4PE/S4PI.

@SimGuruModSquad could we have this "binary template", please?

Bump, would really appreciate the SimGurus to give us the template.