SimPose-ium: Basic Tutorial

Contents
Getting started
- After installation, use the Windows Explorer to look at the folder into which you unpacked the SimPose-ium zip. You should see an executable 'SimPose5.exe' and a folder 'GameData'. If either of these is missing recheck the download instructions (did you have WinZip's 'Use folder names' checked in the export dialog?)
- Run SimPose5.exe. You'll see a window like (but probably not identical to) that above
- Select the 'Character' tab in the left hand (control) window
- In the 'Joint control' droplist, select part of the Sims body (say L_LEG - the left leg)
- Move the sliders below the joint control droplist to move the Sims' limb
- Select a new joint in the drop list and repeat until you've posed the Sim in the position you require. Note that not all Sims have all body parts - for some Sims, particularly the Finger and Toe joints won’t do anything. Also note that the ROOT and PELVIS joints have both rotation and translation (up/down, left/right) movement.
Saving and restoring a pose
- Pose the Sim in the desired position as described above
- From the 'Static' menu, select the 'Save Pose to Library' option
- In the dialog box that is displayed, press the 'Add Pose' button (if the library already has poses in it - other than the default - you can update a pose in the library by selecting its name and pressing OK - rather than 'Add Pose')
- Type a name for the pose in the input dialog box that appears (press OK).
- Repeat for more poses if required
- To save the pose library, in the 'Static' menu select 'Save Library As'. This will produce a standard Windows file selector dialog. Navigate to the folder that you want to save the library in, and type in the name of the library. If you don’t save the library after changing it and you try and exit the program, you'll get a warning and be asked if you want to save.
- Load a saved library using 'Static' 'Load Pose Library'
- Also from the 'Static' menu, select the 'Select Pose' option
- A dialog is presented that includes all the poses saved in the loaded library, selected the pose required and press OK
- If you want to apply a pose selected from the pose list to part of a Sim, say just the arms and head (leaving the body and legs unaltered) - by the SubSet list press the Add button. This presents the user with a multi-choice select list filled with all the joint names. Select all the Arm and Head related joints, enter a name for the subset (say ArmsAndHead) and press OK. Now press OK in the selection dialog causes just the selected joints to be changed. The named sunset is stored with the library, so can be used again later.
- The displayed Sim should move to the desired pose. If it doesn't, press the space bar to force the screen to refresh
Changing the number and type of Sims displayed
- At any time SimPose-ium 'knows' about two Sims. These can be displayed individually, or together
- On the 'Character' page, use the 'Character visible + control' droplist to select Sim1, Sim2 or both. If both are displayed they can be shown in the same position (use the joint 'ROOT translate' to separate them) or apart
- If both Sims are being displayed, select either Sim1 or Sim2 using the radio buttons in the 'Character visible + control' box. All menu operations and joint controls etc act on the selected Sim only (if only one Sim is being shown, it is selected by default)
- Use the five droplists in the 'Character' box to select: the age and sex of the selected Sim, its body type and skin, its head type and skin. The body and head options are changed to be appropriate for the selected age and gender.
Changing the Sims' hands and adding props
- To change either hand, select the 'Change Right/Left Hand' option from the 'Props/Hand' menu
- In the dialog box that appears, select the required hand object and skin from the droplists
- To add a prop to the Sim (a hat, book, bag etc…) select the 'Add Prop' option from the 'Props/Hand' menu. The object as texture are again selected from droplists in a dialog
- To remove props from a Sim, select the 'Clear Props' option from the 'Props/Hand' menu. This removes all attached props, there is no way to remove props individually.
Adding new characters and props to the options droplists
When SimPose-ium is first set-up you have one male, female, boy and girl figure available, plus the dark glasses and floor props
You can add further choices to the droplists by:
- locating a model or texture file you want to add. These can be obtained by: using FarExtract to extract them from TheSims data files, downloading them from the web, or looking in the SimShow GameData folders. See the links page for sources of models and textures.
- the model/texture file then wants to be copied into the appropriate SimPose folder under the SimPose-ium GameData folder. ObjX is a model (.skn) folder and TexX the equivalent texture (.bmp) folder, where X is: M (male), F (female) B (boy), G (girl) or P (prop). Inside each character folder are three others, for Head, Hand and Body models/textures.
Animation and Creating props
There are more advanced guides to lighting and camera angles, keyframe animation and prop creation.


