Convert vehicle to object?

[IronBeard]

Just a thought...
Is it possible to clone a custom vehicle as a non-drivable object, and still have it show any recolors for the original?

Reason I ask is, I have a custom motorcycle in a variety of finishes that all my Sim Nomads MC (AFFA!!!) own, but it would be nice to have a few hogs to park permanently outside the bar they drink at. I've tried having the bar owner purchase a few of these vehicles and place them around the lot with moveObjects on, but this is not really satisfactory.

Thanks

[Theraven]

Fully possible.

You clone a non-animated deco object (Basegame objects are often best to use), then extract all the parts of the car as object meshes. Then you just slave the object subsets to the ones from the original car. This will save a lot of space too, as the new object won't have any texture files, and will only be a few KBs. You can slave all the subsets, but only two of the subsets can be recolorable.

"Adding subsets" tutorial and "slave object" tutorial.

[IronBeard]

Fully possible.

You clone a non-animated deco object (Basegame objects are often best to use), then extract all the parts of the car as object meshes. Then you just slave the object subsets to the ones from the original car. This will save a lot of space too, as the new object won't have any texture files, and will only be a few KBs. You can slave all the subsets, but only two of the subsets can be recolorable.

"Adding subsets" tutorial and "slave object" tutorial.

Thanks... you're a mine of useful suggestions today! Anyway, I kind of dig what you're saying, though not having any experience of the process makes it hard to visualise. But I will go over the tutes you've linked when I can find a peaceful few minutes to myself.

[Theraven]

I did the car thing a couple of weeks ago. The car deco ended up a bit more shiny than I'd hoped for, but that's a material/texture problem (cloned from the ming vase, if I remember right). You could copy settings from the original object, but some of the settings will be different. 

Just learned the subset thing myself, and it was much easier than I thought it was. I do have to use the tutorials every time, but more as check-lists, since my short-time memory tends to go on holiday a bit too much... There is a lot of SimPE work, none too complicated, but skipping only one step leads to trouble. Especially when new to it, and trying to combine the tutorials without testing the items first.

The slaved parts usually shows up black in SimPE, so my best tip (at least when you're new to it) is to first add and fix the subsets and materials in the object, test the object to see if everything works, then slave the subsets to the original. Saves you the trouble of figuring out if you added the subsets correctly.

[IronBeard]

I might be jumping the gun a bit here, as I haven't even had time to look at the tutes yet, but once you've created an object from a vehicle in this way, do I presume that any recolors for the original vehicle have to be cloned and reassigned?

[Theraven]

Nope, that's what the slaving tutorial is for. Slaving the slave object (deco car) to the master object (the car) lets the slave object use the master object textures. Up to two subsets can be recolorable from ingame.

You don't have to clone a deco object with two subsets, as the subset tutorial shows how to add a subset and make it recolorable.

Slaving objects is especially good when making beds and cribs (so you don't need one set of bedding recolors for each item), but also furniture which can use similar UVmapping. It also saves lots of room on your harddrive and in your downloads folder, since you only need one set of recolors.

[IronBeard]

Slave... right, I see that now! Well, this is all good stuff to know, now all I need is the time to myself!

[caffeinated.joy]

Moving questions about meshing/recolouring, etc to the right section.

[IronBeard]

It's just occurred to me that I won't be able to clone any game objects, being on a Mac and having to transfer files to a Windows laptop to work on in SimPE. Can I assume that any non-animated custom object would suffice instead?

[Theraven]

Most non-animated deco objects will do (most from the sculpture section, some from the mics section). I tend to use the ming vase, the blue vase with red flowers, the bigger basegame sculptures, and a few others.
 
Basegame objects are usually safest, as they're compatible with most games (in case you want to uninstall an EP later, for instance).